Australian Guantanamo detainee drugged, lawyer says

Sydney - Australian terror suspect David Hicks was forcibly sedated at Guantanamo Bay last month just before he was told of a new charge against him, his US military defence lawyer said Monday.

Major Michael Mori, who represents Adelaide-born Hicks, said his client was left frightened and confused after taking a drug offered to him by a US official to counteract a stomach complaint.

"David took it and then it started to basically sedate him," Mori told ABC radio.

"The next thing he knew, he was being taken out of his cell and somebody was talking to him about charges and he really couldn't comprehend what was going on. And it lasted for almost 24 hours."

A spokesman for the Pentagon told the ABC that US officials were examining the allegations, but noted that Hicks "has been treated humanely while in US custody."

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Australian consular officials had raised the issue with US authorities.

"But the idea that you immediately come to a conclusion this was some sinister effort is not necessarily a safe assumption to draw," he told ABC radio.

Hicks, 31, has been held in US military custody for more than five years without trial, the last year spent in virtual solitary confinement in a small cell.

He was last month charged with providing material support for terrorism and is due to appear in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom next week.

Public support for Hicks, who was captured in late 2001 in Afghanistan where he was allegedly fighting alongside Taliban forces, has grown because of the length of time he has been held without trial.

Prime Minister John Howard, who unlike his British counterpart Tony Blair has steadfastly refused to seek the release of his nationals from US custody, has admitted it has taken too long for Hicks to be tried.

Australian lawyers for Hicks have long argued that the government has abandoned the father-of-two, and have gone to the Federal Court to argue that Canberra has breached its duty of care.

Hicks' Adelaide-based lawyer, David McLeod, said Howard, Ruddock and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer could be called to give evidence when the case goes to court on May 17.

McLeod said while most evidence should be agreed on without the need to call witnesses, senior government officials could be called if the facts were in dispute.

"If it (evidence) can't be agreed, then there will be a request for certain witnesses and it may well include Mr. Downer and Mr. Ruddock and indeed Mr. Howard as potential witnesses," McLeod told ABC radio.

McLeod said he was confident the Federal Court hearing would result in Hicks being brought home ahead of his US military trial.

"If we succeed in our arguments before the Federal Court, then a consequence will be for the government to take steps to seek David's release back to Australia," he said.

Agence France Presse

Not really sure if we WANT him back to be honest ? Don't have time for turncoats....especially those that turn thier back on family as well as country.

Don't have a lot of sympathy for this lad, regardless of how long he rots there.

I have to say that when I read of British moslems going over to Afghanistan then getting caught up in `events` and taken to Guantanamo Bay I ask myself "Why?"

Why on earth put themselves in the position where they can get themselves mistaken for terrorists or whatever they`re called? Common sense suggests that they are putting themselves in the firing line, and for that alone I find it difficult to sympathize, even if they aren`t pro-al whatever.