Howard Government Protests the Hicks Trial Fairness

According to The Australian, even the Howard government doesn’t think the Hicks trial is fair:

A statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock last night said that “following our observations of the preliminary hearing, it appears that some improvements are required to ensure that understandings on procedural fairness are met”.

It is understood Australia has concerns that presiding officer Colonel Peter Brownback does not completely comprehend the rules the Howard Government negotiated with the US for the conduct of Hicks’s trial.

The largest opposition party (Labour) accused the government of vote buying, having ignored the plight of David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib. The arbitrariness of the “rules” that have been negotiated is extremely frightening – this is for a citizen of a country that has dutifully followed the U.S. into several imperialist expeditions. How then are the citizens of countries such as Syria, Iran and Palestine to fair under a legal system which can be “negotiated”? Hick’s U.S. military lawyer Major Mori is quoted by Reuters:

“Anyone there in the courtroom would have seen that this military commission system is not a functioning judicial system, it’s something that is being created on the fly, as it goes along, and it’s very difficult to operate or provide anybody a fair trial”

The facade of egalitarianism in U.S. law is rapidly falling away for non-U.S. citizens, a country murderously seized and claimed by immigrants and earlier trumpeted for it’s opportunity.