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| Habib may seek compensation |
| 2005-01-29 |
| THE lawyers for former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib said today there were grounds to seek compensation for his detention, although no decision had been made. Mr Habib's US counsel Joe Margulies, speaking in Sydney today, was critical of US authorities' handling of Mr Habib's arrest in Pakistan in October 2001. "The rendition, the transfer (of Mr Habib) from Pakistan to Egypt by US authorities was unlawful and the question is whether we will proceed with that litigation and that decision hasn't been made," he told reporters at Sydney Airport. "For three years we have asked for one thing only and that is an opportunity to clear his name in a fair process. "We ask only that the (US) government be asked to demonstrate the lawfulness of his detention by a legitimate means - that is by applying fixed and transparent standards in a fair tribunal. "... that didn't happen, he was released instead and that speaks for itself and so now the question is whether the (US) government will continue to speak ill of him but refuse the obligation to come in and put up any evidence about it." Mr Margulies said Mr Habib was exhausted on his return to Sydney on Friday and was recovering at an undisclosed location. He said Mr Habib was suffering from emotional and psychological problems as a result of his detention in Guantanamo Bay. Mr Habib had lost weight, but Mr Margulies did not wish to elaborate on the extent of his client's medical condition apart from saying he would need specialist treatment. "Mr Habib has some chronic medical conditions as a result of his incarceration, that we're going to get taken care of or at least have specialists take a look at," Mr Margulies said. "He has developed some emotional and psychological conditions that will require even more time (to recover from)." On the day Mr Habib was due to return home he was told by US authorities he was being taken back to Egypt, Mr Margulies said. "The United States, even the day he was going to be returned when he was shackled and already been removed to a truck that they were going to bring him to the plane on, ... continued to tell him that he was being taken to Egypt," he said. "He didn't know for sure that he was going to Australia until he reached the plane on the tarmac at Guantanamo and saw me at the top of the stairs and then he realised he was coming home to Australia. That was a very emotional moment." Mr Margulies said securing Mr Habib's freedom was one of his most satisfying successes as a civil rights lawyer. "I've witnessed an execution, I have been to my client's execution, and the feeling of seeing my client, Mamdouh, with his wife when he first came back is the perfect antithesis to watching your client being executed," he said. "(Mr Habib) was given his life back and I may never experience anything else like that." |
| Posted by:God Save The World |