NEW YORK - Australia's foreign minister on Friday criticized lawyers representing the only Australian inmate at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay for disputing his report that the man is healthy. David Hicks' Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Maj. Michael Mori, has repeatedly said his client is suffering from severe depression after being incarcerated for five years without a trial.| Five years? Yup, I'd be depressed too. Wouldn't change anything. |
Downer was quoted Thursday as saying that Hicks met recently with an unidentified foreign citizen. "There was no suggestion that he was suffering from mental illness, though no doubt he doesn't like being in Guantanamo Bay," Downer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. Hick's legal team has been reported as saying that the visitor was a U.S. consular official with no special medical or psychiatric qualifications.
Downer also said Friday that Hicks, 31, will face new charges to replace previous charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit war crimes and aiding the enemy. Hicks was originally selected to face a U.S. military tribunal but his case was thrown into limbo in June when the U.S. Supreme Court declared the tribunals illegal. Australian officials say they have received assurances that Hicks will be among the first to be charged and tried under a revised military tribunal system approved by Congress last year.