Trial of Australian Gitmo detainee to start in October News
Trial of Australian Gitmo detainee to start in October

[JURIST] The US Defense Department [official website] Tuesday directed that suspended military commission proceedings against Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks [Wikipedia profile; advocacy website] be resumed following a July US appeals court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [PDF] that military commission trials did not have to be predicated by a ruling on terror detainees' POW status by another "competent tribunal". Hicks has been accused of fighting with the Taliban against US forces in Afghanistan and is charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. His trial is set to be held no earlier than October 3 and no later than October 20, 2005. The news is not good for Hicks himself, whose lawyers had been hoping to avoid a trial [JURIST report], citing worries about the lack of time the defense team would have to prepare. AP has more.