Hicks trial process 'biased'

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DAVID Hicks faces a biased trial and political pressure for a prosecution including from within Australia, his Marine Corps defence lawyer has told an audience in Melbourne. Major Michael Mori, lawyer for the 30-year-old Australian terrorist suspect held in Guantanamo Bay for the past four years, gave the University of Melbourne Law School's 2006 Alumni Lecture tonight.

Major Mori has been a leading critic of the legal processes used to try those held in the Caribbean detention camp, a process he says has a lack of independent checks and balances and is open to political influence.

"Unfortunately, I believe there is political motivation in the prosecution of David Hicks," Major Mori told the packed law school lecture hall. "(David) has asked me what did Australia say I did wrong? I told him he hadn't violated any Australian law, it was really hard to explain."... Why?, you'll have to ask the politicians, it is really hard for me to answer that because it wouldn't be tolerated in America."

Major Mori said Hicks was in a state of mental "despair", as he faced a commission process that was fundamentally flawed because it did not follow the conventions of a military court martial or a civil trial. The same US officials responsible for fighting the war on terror had created a justice mechanism without "wriggle room" for those detained, Major Mori said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18737219-1702,00.html