Habib, Hicks seeking justice in light of CIA torture report

Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks have long claimed they were tortured at the notorious US facility at Guantanamo Bay - and that the Australian government abetted their abuse.

Naomi Selvaratnam

 

The US Senate report on controversial CIA interrogation techniques comes as no surprise to two Australians.

More than three years' detention and torture continues to haunt Mamdouh Habib.

"I'm suffering for what I know. I'm suffering when I see every day America accusing people of terrorism and they are the terrorists themselves," he told SBS.

David Hicks was detained for twice as long -- from 2001 to 2007 -- before accepting a plea bargain to secure his release.

His father, Terry Hicks, said the only surprising thing about the CIA report was its honesty.

"Everything's in there on the tortures, when they happened, how they did it, and... our argument was that the Australian government knew what was happening and did nothing about it," Mr Hicks said.

Both men are seeking redress for the years of systemic brutality now confirmed in the US Senate report.

Mr Habib said he plans to pursue monetary compensation.

"I want fair justice from America. I want these people to be punished, I want to be paid for every hour I spent in Guantanamo Bay, and Egypt and Afghanistan , Kanadahar and Baghram," Mr Habib told SBS.

"And I'm not going to shut up about it."

Terry Hicks said his son will pursue a legal appeal to clear his name.

"Take the convictions off him," he said.

"We haven't even thought about suing anybody over this. Our main thing at the moment is let's get David cleared of this to start with."

David Hicks' former US military lawyer, Dan Mori said it's unlikely those responsible for torture will face court.

"They provided immunity to these actors through a law in the United States in 2006, so I would doubt that we would ever see any internal prosecutions within the US," he said.

Now a human rights consultant in Australia, Mr Mori said the CIA's past practices have led to worse today.

"The legacy of removing these protections of trying to treat people very harshly is then targeted killing lists that are being used by the Obama administration, to the fact that the USA now has kill lists and they've been widely accepted is one of the legacies"

Dan Mori says the big test for US coalition partners like Australia is whether they will challenge use of kill lists as a violation of international law.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/12/10/habib-hicks-seeking-justice-light-cia-torture-report