Fed: Hicks' lawyers say military tribunal won't give fair trial

AAP General News (Australia)
08-04-2006
Fed: Hicks' lawyers say military tribunal won't give fair trial

SYDNEY, Aug 4 AAP - Lawyers for Australian terror suspect David Hicks say a new system
of military tribunals for non-US inmates at Guantanamo Bay would not guarantee their client
a fair trial.

The Bush administration is proposing a new system based on a court martial after the
US Supreme Court ruled in June that the previous military commissions were unlawful.

But Hicks' Adelaide-based lawyer David McLeod has told Fairfax newspapers the new system
would allow hearsay evidence and limit rights against self-incrimination before a trial.

Defendants would also have restricted access to classified information.

The Australian government would also be forced to reject the system because it had
made a commitment to only back a new trial system that met the demands of the US Supreme
Court, he said.

AAP nr/cdh

KEYWORD: HICKS TRIBUNAL

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