I may be alone but I feel a bit sorry for the fool.
David Hicks: US government agrees former Guantanamo Bay detainee is innocent, lawyer says
Updated 47 minutes agoFri 23 Jan 2015, 8:30am PHOTO: Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks (left) with his father Terry Hicks.(AAP: Tracey Nearmy) RELATED STORY: Lawyer confident David Hicks conviction will be overturned RELATED STORY: Guantanamo detainee David Hicks heckles Brandis about 'torture' RELATED STORY: US Senate report lifts lid on 'brutal' CIA torture program MAP: United States
The United States has agreed that former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Australian David Hicks, is innocent, his lawyer has said.
Mr Hicks pleaded guilty in 2007 to providing "material support for terrorism" but his legal team claimed that he did so under duress and filed an appeal last year.
Mr Hicks's lawyer was confident his name was set to be cleared after the change of position by the US government.
Mr Hicks had appealed against his 2007 conviction for providing material support for terrorism.
Lawyer Stephen Kenny said they had been told the government did not dispute his innocence and also admitted that his conviction was not correct.
He expected to hear within a month whether the Military Commission would quash his conviction.
"I have no doubt, that whether or not the Military Commission clears David, he will certainly be cleared in the higher courts of the United States if we need to go there," Mr Kenny said.
There had been court rulings that the charge Mr Hicks pleaded guilty to was not actually a crime so the charge was "simply invalid", he said.
"[It is] a fact we've known for some time, but it's taken the court some time to come to that conclusion," Mr Kenny said.
The delay in agreeing to Mr Hicks's innocence stemmed from part of his plea bargain, in which he agreed he would never appeal his conviction, Mr Kenny said.
"This is unusual in Australia, but not unusual in the United States and so the United States government is saying 'although he's innocent he signed this agreement not to appeal and therefore the court has no jurisdiction to consider it and secondly, as a matter of contract law, the court should hold David to his bargain'," he said. David Hicks's trials and tribulations
"Now the difficulty the government has is that contract law has nothing to do with this case and the second problem they have is the Military Commission can determine its own jurisdiction, and of course they have jurisdiction to consider this matter.
"So we have no doubts that the Military Commission, following the [former Sudanese Guantanamo Bay detainee] Noor [Muhammed] case, will make a ruling now that David Hicks' conviction should be set aside."
Mr Kenny hoped the Australian Government would apologise for its part in Mr Hicks's treatment.
"I think their support of holding David in Guantanamo Bay in those conditions for so long is a severe embarassment and he at least deserves an apology from those who were involved," he said.
"What it does show is what a significant failure the action the United States, with the support of Australia, took after September 11 was.
"Guantanamo Bay now stands out as a serious blight on a country that prides itself with its democratic rule."
Mr Hicks was captured in Afghanistan and held at the US naval base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 until May 2007.
In 2007, Mr Hicks pleaded guilty to charges, including attempted murder and providing material support for terrorism. The deal saw him serve out the remainder of his sentence in an Australian jail.
PHOTO: Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks (left) with his father Terry Hicks.(AAP: Tracey Nearmy)
