CANBERRA - Lawyers for Australia’s only Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks launched court action against the Australian government on Monday, arguing senior ministers had failed to ensure a fair trial.Hicks’ Australian-based solicitor David McLeod asked the Federal Court in Sydney to rule on whether senior lawmakers had breached their ministerial duty by approving trial for Hicks through a US military commission. “In effect the courts are being asked to review the actions of ministers in their dealings with other governments,” McLeod told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
The Australian Federal Court was to rule first on whether it had jurisdiction to hear a case which government lawyers said interfered with ministerial control over foreign affairs. Opening the case, Solicitor-General David Bennett said the government had no legal obligation to protect citizens abroad.
But Hicks’ lawyer McLeod said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney General Philip Ruddock should have followed the lead of the British government and ensured its citizens were released from Guantanamo Bay. “It’s definitely not a stunt. It’s an opportunity for David’s case to be aired before the courts and for the courts to take a view as to whether or not it has the power and authority to intervene to assist an Australian citizen,” he said.
As the hearing began, six top Australian legal figures wrote a public letter condemning the US military commission process, set up to try Hicks and other detainees. “The fact of the matter is that this is not a regular court, it’s not a properly constituted court and it cannot deliver a fair trial,” group spokesman and former Family Court Chief Justice Alistair Nicholson said.