http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/lets-bring-david-hicks-home/2005/11/11/1131578231210.html

If the US can't give him a fair trial now, we should do it or set him free, writes Danna Vale.

If ever the subject of David Hicks comes up in conversation, this Australian citizen is dismissed in a bevy of Aussie colloquialisms that describe his lack of judgement or intellectual fortitude. He just has to be either a prize dill, a young misguided fool, a folly-footed adventurer, an unlucky soldier of fortune, or even a bone-headed terrorist.

Of course, he could be a terrorist. But the longer he is confined in the bowels of Guantanamo Bay, he appears less the terrorist and more a prize dill, a young misguided fool who, alone, is facing the might and power of the greatest superpower the world has known since the Roman Empire.

And he is alone. This Australian is the only Western man with 500 others incarcerated in the worst prison known to the Western world that was especially created outside the Geneva Convention, and with all the ramifications of what that means to those who believe in the rule of law and the humane treatment of prisoners.

At times shackled to the floor, at times in solitary confinement in a cage-like cell, David Hicks has now endured Guantanamo Bay for almost four years. Yet this Australian has not been convicted of any crime; and with the recent judgement in the case of Hamdan v Rumsfeld, and the consequential delay in his hearing date of November 18, 2005, he may be left to languish for a further 12 months or more before being brought to trial.

There are a couple of facts that I struggle to understand. The British refused to allow their nine prisoners to be charged by the Americans and asked for them back. Upon return to London, finding they had not committed, nor would be convicted of, any known crime under British law, they were set free. Australia, on the other hand, agreed to the Americans charging David Hicks on the basis that he would be tried quickly and fairly. After four years, "quickly and fairly" have yet to be delivered. And I have a nagging suspicion they never will.

It has been said that if Hicks is returned to Australia, we have no law under which he can be charged and he would walk free. But why should he not walk free if he has not committed an offence against Australian law. He has already been incarcerated for four years, which is more than some get for rape or murder in our country. How long a sentence is considered enough punishment for a misguided fool and prize dill? And until proven otherwise, that is all that can be said about him. Yes, he admits to training with the Taliban, but there was no law against that at the time anywhere in the world. The US prosecutors agree that he did not fire a shot at any American, and indeed, that he has not killed anyone. Yet he is charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy.

With the apprehension of many alleged terrorists in NSW and Victoria this week, the Prime Minister gravely reminded the nation they are Australian citizens and that they will be treated in the time-honoured way we do things here in Australia and that they are all innocent until proven guilty. As an Australian citizen, David Hicks is also entitled to be dealt with in "the time-honoured way" and treated as innocent until proven guilty. The longer Hicks is in Guantanamo Bay, his imprisonment without trial will begin to creep like an incongruent shadow, jarring the Australian consciousness and ultimately darkening the political landscape.

Let's get real. The case of David Hicks clearly fails the commonsense test. It fails the commonsense test not only in the educated minds of the legal profession, but in the gut feelings of ordinary Australians who believe in a fair go, and who believe that truth and justice and that old hand-me-down from the Magna Carta that says men are innocent until proven guilty, still deserve some currency in our world.

Just like you, just like me, as an Australian, he is entitled to a fair trial without further delay. And, after four years in Guantanamo Bay, if the Americans cannot deliver this to David Hicks, in all fairness, we must ask that he be sent home.

Danna Vale is the Liberal MHR for Hughes and former minister for veterans affairs.