GUANTANAMO

US sets terrorism trial rules

The new rules for military courts in the US allow convicted terrorists to be imprisoned or put to death using hearsay evidence or coerced testimony.
The Pentagon's manual will apply to Guantanamo Bay detainees like Australian David Hicks.
It also states a suspect's defence lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence until the Government has had a chance to review it.
The detainee may never get to see classified information. Instead he will be given an unclassified version of the case against him.

Hicks's lawyer blasts new guidelines

David Hicks's American lawyer says new guidelines for his client's military trial are unfair and do not improve on the previous flawed system.
Major Michael Mori says the guidelines released by the Pentagon still do not include fundamental rights such as habeas corpus.
He has also criticised their retrospective nature.
"A law has been passed in 2006 that is being applied retroactively to someone for conduct five years ago," he said.
"That's not acceptable.
"Even the Australian ministers have said creating legislation now and applying it to David retroactively is inappropriate, and yet that's exactly what the United States is doing to David, which we would not accept for Americans."

[ "Unfortunately what we've seen in the past under the illegal system is that the Attorney-General just went right along with whatever his American counterparts told him and didn't exercise any independent judgement," - Major Michael Mori]

Don't accept new rules, Opposition urges Govt

The Opposition says the Federal Government should not accept the new rules for the military trial of non-American detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The Pentagon has released the guidelines, which allow hearsay evidence and information gathered under coercion to be admitted.
Lawyers say the only significant change in the new rules is the removal of the detainees' rights to habeas corpus - that is the right to challenge the nature of their detention.

["The United States' Military Commission Act expressly stipulates that no American citizen can be dealt with by the military commission, so if it's not good enough for an American citizen, if it's not good enough for a British citizen, why is it good enough for an Australian citizen?" - ALPs Kevin Thompson]