Fed: Ruddock says Hicks still committed serious offence

AAP General News (Australia)
04-28-2007
Fed: Ruddock says Hicks still committed serious offence

CANBERRA, April 28 AAP - David Hicks might have diminished capacity but he had still
committed a serious offence in training with terrorist organisations, Attorney-General
Philip Ruddock said today.

Mr Ruddock said Hicks would be back in Australia before the end of next month.

Responding to comments from US prosecutors who described Hicks as a wannabe who would
have been a liability for terror group al-Qaeda, Mr Ruddock said training with terrorists
was still a serious matter.

He said that wasn't an offence under Australian law at the time Hicks was undertaking
training in Afghanistan but it was now.

"We regard those, whether they have diminished capacity or otherwise, training with
terrorist organisations, in relation to how you use weapons and how you plan attacks and
related matters, as very serious offences," he told Sky News.

"He pleaded guilty with the advice that he had received from his own legal counsel.

He certainly was very much aware of the nature of the charges related to the activities
in which he was engaged."

Hicks was captured fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan in December 2001 and transferred
to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2002.

Under a plea deal last month, he was sentenced to seven years' jail. He is set to be
transferred to Australia to serve out his time in Adelaide. He's likely to be released
next year.

Comments from US prosecutors who dealt with Hicks are contained in a new book by ABC
reporter Leigh Sales. Details were published in today's Australian newspaper.

Mr Ruddock said he looked forward to reading the book.

He said the point ought to be made that Hicks had admitted training with terrorist organisations.

Mr Ruddock said he didn't know on what basis the views of the prosecutors were formed.

"Training with a terrorist organisation is a very serious matter," he said.

"Whether he had diminished capacity or otherwise to make judgements doesn't in any
way undermine the seriousness of the matters that the military commission dealt with.

"The Australian public regard them as serious issues. That is why they are offences
under our law."

Mr Ruddock said he had been attorney-general for just over three years and he had been
involved with the Hicks case for all that time, pressing the US for the case to be finalised
speedily.

"If they (the US) had said they weren't trying Hicks, we would have sought his return," he said.

"But the US situation always was that they intended that he would be put before a military
commission process, that he would be required to answer the charges.

"Our view was that those matters had to be properly tested."

AAP mb/lh

KEYWORD: HICKS RUDDOCK

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