Friday, March 30, 2007
FREE IN 2008
David Hicks will only serve nine months:
Hicks, 31, who has spent five years at Guantanamo Bay, was sentenced by a U.S. military commission on Friday to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to helping al Qaeda fight American troops and their allies during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
However, the commission suspended six years and three month of the sentence, meaning Hicks will serve just nine months in an Australian prison.
Kevin Rudd, previously evasive on the subject, now has an opinion:
A Labor government would honour the sentence imposed on David Hicks and keep him in an Australian jail for his full nine-month term, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said today ...
"We are no defenders of Mr Hicks, we are no defenders of what he has done or what he is alleged to have done. We are a defender of his legal rights and human rights,’’ he said.
Speaking of Rudd, the SMH’s Alan Ramsey is unimpressed by his recent Latham-like antics.