Hicks lawyers claim evidence supporting torture allegations News
Hicks lawyers claim evidence supporting torture allegations

[JURIST] Lawyers for David Hicks [BBC profile; advocacy website; JURIST news archive], an Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, say that they have photographic evidence that Hicks was tortured by American soldiers, though they have declined to identify any witnesses at this point. Hicks' father told [interview transcript] Australian television program Four Corners Monday that his son was tortured and sexually abused while in American custody, claiming that he was temporarily moved to a location where UN conventions on prisoner treatment did not apply. Hicks' lawyers have uncovered records of helicopter flights where Hicks claims he was flown from a US warship to an undisclosed location, beaten and spat on. In July, a US military investigation, undertaken at the request of Australian authorities [JURIST report], concluded that there was no evidence to support allegations [JURIST report] that Hicks and Egyptian-born Australian Mamdouh Habib had been abused while in US custody. Hicks is set to face trial [JURIST report] on November 18 before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay on charges of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy. Australia's ABC News has local coverage.