This story is weird and tragic. Its about an Australian disability pensioner who the US government is holding hostage in Cuba. His family recently had their pension payments cut, on the basis that he had exceeded the time he was permitted to remain outside the country. The fact that he has been kidnapped and is being held against his will by a foreign power is apparently no excuse. Obviously he can't be sent back, because the US has made it a condition that they won't send anyone back to their own country unless that country imprisons them, but he has broken no laws and Australia (unlike the US) holds to the rule of law. He can't be charged with any crime by the US because he has broken no US laws, but of course he can't seek the protection of US laws either, because the US is holding him prisoner in a third country.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/05/24/1022038472126.html
Terror accused says he was
kidnapped
May 24 2002
An Australian man accused of having links to the al-Qaeda
terrorist network has sent letters to his family for the first time
since his arrest eight months ago.
Sydney man Mamdouh Habib, 46, said in the letters that he had
been kidnapped and denied he had done anything wrong.
Mr Habib was arrested in Pakistan last October on suspicion of
having links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
He has been detained without charge ever since.
The two letters his family received today had been sent on April
23, a fortnight before he was transferred to the US military-run
Camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Habib
family's lawyer Stephen Hopper.
In the letters, sent through the International Red Cross, Mr Habib
said he had been kidnapped near Karachi in Pakistan, then taken to
Egypt, then transferred to Afghanistan.
"I was catched in Karachi by people I don't know," Mr Habib said.
"They kidnapped me and put me in jail in Pakistan."
He said he had been suffering because he thought his wife, Maha
Habib, and children may be brought from Australia to Egypt.
He also asked if his wife could get a lawyer.
"... because I'm not involved in anything," he said.
Mrs Habib said she was relieved to hear from her husband after
eight months.
"I feel so good to hear from him," Mrs Habib told AAP.
She said Mr Habib had written a letter from within Camp X-ray
that was now in the hands of the Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trading.
A department official had talked to her about the letter on the
phone today, she said.
"(Mamdouh) said to pray and be strong and we are strong and we
are keeping him in mind," she said.
"He says he has done nothing.
"He asked about his little baby, `I wonder how is she like now and I
hope she still remember me'.
"She's 22 months now. She looks at his picture and she says
`baba' and she starts crying."
Mr Hopper added that Mr Habib said he was healthy.
Mr Hopper said the US authorities had been providing Mr Habib with
medication for a pre-existing condition - a condition that had
caused the Australian government to pay his disability pension to
his family until last week.
AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2002/05/24/FFX3MWCFJWC.html
Hicks bribed while in Camp X-Ray says family lawyer
ADELAIDE, May 24 AAP|Published: Friday May 24, 3:32 PM
Alleged al-Qaeda fighter David Hicks has been bribed with an offer of rapid return to Australia in exchange for information about the terrorist network, his lawyer said today.
Lawyer Stephen Kenny said the inducement could lead to any of Hicks' comments to interrogators in Camp X-Ray being thrown out of court in Australia at any trial.
Adelaide-born Hicks is being detained without charge at the US military compound at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after being captured fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan last November.
Hicks has told his family in a letter he has been interviewed by four Australians - two police, an intelligence agent and an official from the Australian embassy in Washington.
A transcript of the letter was provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the Hicks family today.
"I spend all day stuck in a small cage with no daily program," Hicks said in the letter.
Hicks said `they' had told him: "If you tell us everything you know, you will get back to Australia quicker", adding he was "desperate to get home".
Mr Kenny said it was unclear who made the comment to Hicks.
"To have some inducement held out to him when he has been in a cage for six months, that's most improper, no Australian court would allow that to happen," Mr Kenny told reporters in Adelaide.
Asked if it was a bribe, Mr Kenny said: "Yes, that appears to be the suggestion.
"We don't know who `they' are because David in his letter doesn't say," Mr Kenny said.
He said the federal government had assured him the officials who met with Hicks "did not offer him any assurances or undertaking about repatriation to Australia".
"But clearly somebody has prior to the Australians getting there," Mr Kenny said.
"What we want to know is who offered it, and who knew.
"This is an inducement being offered by somebody that would not be accepted in any Australian court ... that's the sort of thing that courts in Australia have consistently banned and heavily criticised."
Mr Kenny said it appeared Hicks cooperated with Australian officials as a result of the inducement.
"I don't believe that he (Hicks) is aware that he has committed any offence," he said.
"He has certainly protested his detention.
"There is no evidence that he has ever participated in any terrorist activity.
"It is now six months since he was first visited by Australian officials and no charges have been laid.
"The Australian government are obviously taking very little interest in this other to be seen aiding the Americans in what we say is a serious breach of human rights.
"It appears at this stage they are simply intending to detain him indefinitely."
Mr Kenny said he understood a letter from a second Australian national detained at Camp X-Ray, Mamdouh Habib, had been passed on to Mr Habib's mother.
He said about 300 people were being detained - all being denied legal access and yet to be charged - at Camp X-Ray from countries including England, France, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen and Qatar.
By Steve Larkin
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