Mori talks about David Hicks PM - Wednesday, 12 May , 2004 18:21:23 Reporter: Tanya Nolan
MARK COLVIN: With Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison now being run by the general who used to run Guantanamo Bay, questions have again been asked about the treatment of the Australian prisoners in Guantanamo, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.
Now the Pentagon-appointed lawyer for Hicks says there are areas of concern surrounding his treatment, and that the Australian Government should be asking the US administration questions.
Major Michael Mori is prevented from speaking in detail, but he says there are very important issues surrounding Hicks's treatment in Afghanistan and on Cuba.
Human rights groups have raised concerns at the interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, including sensory deprivation and stripping detainees naked.
The Federal Government says neither David Hicks's family nor his lawyers have made any claims of maltreatment, but Major Mori says that's because he, and Hicks's Australian lawyer Stephen Kenny, are gagged from doing so.
He spoke to Tanya Nolan.
MICHAEL MORI: I would encourage and think it would be appropriate for the Australian Government, if they want to truly know what is happened to David Hicks, both in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, they just need to ask and come to the source, to us, and we'll tell them. It seems that they just want to keep relying on assurances from the same people who've locked up David Hicks for over two years and, I think they need to start asking the right questions to the right people.
TANYA NOLAN: So if the Australian Government approached you about the treatment of David Hicks in Guantanamo Bay, you could give them a free and frank description of that treatment?
MICHAEL MORI: I would assume so. I can't imagine the US Government prohibiting providing the accurate information to the Australian Government.
TANYA NOLAN: Well the Australian Government maintains that if there was anything untoward about David Hicks's treatment that yourself, Stephen Kenny, his Australian lawyer, or his father Terry Hicks, that you would raise that with the Australian government. Why haven't you?
MICHAEL MORI: Well we're prohibited. The attorneys are, right now we're prohibited from going into interrogation techniques that we've learned about at Guantanamo Bay. Mr Hicks, when he was allowed to speak to David, they weren't allowed to discuss David's treatment at the hands of US forces. So there has been no avenue and really it would be great if the Australian Government, you know, came to us which would, I'm sure, facilitate the communication.
TANYA NOLAN: So if the Government approached you to find out what sort of treatment David Hicks was receiving at the hands of US authorities at Guantanamo Bay, would it be a different picture from what we're hearing in the media?
MICHAEL MORI: Well, I think, you know, if the Australian Government worked it out so that the US Government would allow us to provide them the information, the Australian Government would get the good and the bad from me. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to ensure that the truth be told, and David would cooperate, and they'd hear about the good treatment and they'd hear about any bad treatment as well.
TANYA NOLAN: So there has been bad treatment?
MICHAEL MORI: (Silence)
TANYA NOLAN: I'll take that as a case of you're not able to confirm nor deny that.
MICHAEL MORI: Yeah. Yeah. Who's calling now?
TANYA NOLAN: I mean you say that the young guards that you've met at Guantanamo Bay do not act in an inhumane or cruel way to the detainees.
MICHAEL MORI: I only visited him since December of 2003. You know, when I see him, they were professional and humane and interact that way with David Hicks. But it's really the policies such as that David Hicks wasn't allowed to have any outside recreation during the day for almost eight months, until the Australian consular office helped us get that changed. You know, that's a policy decision.
TANYA NOLAN: Well Human Rights Watch says that the tactics being used at Guantanamo Bay are cruel and inhuman.
MICHAEL MORI: Any group that, especially the ICRC, is down there and has access, unfortunately their reports aren't available, and I would be curious to know whether or not the US Government has shared with the Australian government the ICRC reports on the treatment in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
TANYA NOLAN: So there are areas of concern about David Hicks's treatment in Guantanamo Bay that Stephen Kenny, his Australian lawyer, has already raised, but has let the public know that he's gagged from telling the whole story. Is there another whole story that the public is yet to know about David Hicks's treatment?
MICHAEL MORI: I think the professional way to handle it is to provide the specifics to an investigative body, so that a proper investigation can be done before going to media. I mean my concern about how the detainees are treated at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan is not just for David but it's also potentially how people, the treatment impacts these people who may be witnesses against David, how they, how the interrogation techniques might have been used to manipulate people's stories.
TANYA NOLAN: So have you had any response from the US military as to why none of these interrogations were ever recorded?
MICHAEL MORI: Just recently it was reported that General Miller said they didn't record anything - video tape or audio tape any interrogations - because the detainees might get access to them and provide exculpatory evidence. Basically, evidence that would help prove people's innocence, and I'm very concerned about that, for any trial with David Hicks.
TANYA NOLAN: Is that legal?
MICHAEL MORI: I don't really know what laws apply down there.
MARK COLVIN: Major Michael Mori, the military lawyer that the Pentagon has appointed to represent David Hicks. He was speaking to Tanya Nolan. And the office of the Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says it has no information to suggest that David Hicks has been maltreated. It says Australian officials who've visited Guantanamo Bay on at least six occasions have not raised any such allegations.