ADELAIDE - Confessed terrorist David Hicks was merely a pawn in a political game, the Law Council of Australia says.
Law Council president Tim Bugg today said Hicks' detention for more than five years at a US military prison in Guantanamo Bay had nothing to do with justice
and everything to do with politics.
"From the very beginning Mr Hicks was a pawn in a political game played ruthlessly for advantage in both the US and Australia," Mr Bugg said.
"The Howard Government's complicity in his detention in a legal black hole beyond the reach of anything resembling an impartial or independent judicial system marks a low point in Australian political life."
Hicks was captured among Taleban forces in Afghanistan in late 2001 and has since been detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Last week the 31-year-old Muslim convert pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support to terrorism.
Under a plea deal he will return to Australia to serve a further nine months in an Adelaide prison before being set free.
Mr Bugg attacked the federal government on its continued support of the American military commission system set up to try Guantanamo Bay detainees.
He said the system gave the US "judicially unsupervised powers to detain indefinitely without charge anyone, arrested anywhere".
"Mr Hicks' nightmare is nearly over because it became politically imperative for it to end," he said.
"Heaven help those in Guantanamo Bay without someone to stand up for their rights.
"The US and Australian governments clearly won't be coming to their aid."
- AAP
