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CATHOLIC JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMISSION
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Media Release Thursday 7 August 2003
Guantanamo Bay Australians Deserve Fair Trial in Australia The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Brisbane today called for the two Australians held by the US at Guantanamo Bay to be returned to Australia and given a fair trial with due legal process. The Commission made this call on the twenty-eighth birthday of one of the Australians, David Hicks. The Commission's Executive Officer, Peter Arndt, said the two men, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, have been held for a long period, detained in small cells, with little exercise and no access to legal counsel and without independent, regular supervision of their treatment. "Habib and Hicks should be treated in the same way as those accused of the horrible Bali bombing," Mr Arndt said "They should be tried in their own country in a fair, open trial," he said. We don't know what they have done and they haven't been charged with anything," he said. "It is very disappointing that some people are happy to condemn both these men on the basis of media reports and to have them treated in a way which does not accord with any laws which Australia accepts," he said. "The terrorists we are trying to thwart ignore the law, basic human rights and any sense of true justice and we must not let our horror at what they have done or feelings of vengeance to suspend our respect for human rights and commitment to true justice," he added. Mr Arndt appealed to all Australians to contact the Prime Minister and call on him to seek the return of the two Australians. For further information, contact Peter Arndt on (07) 3891 5911 or 0409 265 476. |