"Australian Taleban" David Hicks has been acquitted of all charges:
Australian David Hicks has welcomed the decision of an American military court to set aside his terrorism conviction, but says he will not be seeking an official apology.The reason? Because the crime Hicks pled guilty to in his plea bargain did not exist at the time of the supposed offence and could not be applied retrospectively. Disgracefully, the US government tried to argue that that didn't matter, and that Hicks' imprisonment and conviction was legal simply because he had agreed to it and agreed not to appeal (another example of American "justice"). Fortunately, the court called bullshit on that.
Mr Hicks, a former prisoner at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, has won a legal challenge to his terrorism conviction before a military court in Cuba.
At a press conference in Sydney today he thanked the Australian public for its support and said he was "looking forward to getting on with my life now that my name has been cleared".
Hicks will now be able to sue for compensation, both from the US government (which tortured and rendered him, then imprisoned him unlawfully for six years), and the Australian one (which collaborated in that treatment, then subjected him to a control order limiting his freedom on the basis of this bogus conviction). I hope he takes them both to the cleaners.
