| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| Habib sacks Sydney lawyer |
| 2005-04-05 |
| Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has sacked the Sydney lawyer who spent at least three years working to secure his freedom. Lawyer Stephen Hopper has told a community forum that Mr Habib - freed without charge in January after years in detention on suspicion of terrorism - had gone elsewhere. "The Habib family have decided to go elsewhere as of today, so I wish them luck with their long struggle to obtain justice," he told the forum. "I'm very happy to have worked on the case. "But it's not really appropriate that I comment any further for the reasons why this may have occurred - that's for other people from now on." He made the revelation at a community forum, titled Lies, Torture and Deportation, at the Pennant Hills Community Centre on Tuesday night. Mr Hopper began representing Mr Habib as early as April 2002, when his client was in US custody in Afghanistan, suspected of training with the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Mr Habib, who was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001, spent more than three years in detention - most of it at the United States military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He was released without charge earlier this year, when US authorities said they would not pursue him. Mr Hopper did not say who Mr Habib's new lawyer would be. Next article: Crashed chopper's black box recovered |
| Posted by:God Save The World |