Australian lawmakers say Hicks plea is flawed

CANBERRA, Mar 27 (Reuters) Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks pleaded guilty to terrorism charges to speed up his return home and to escape a flawed system of US military justice, Australian lawmakers said today.

''His guilty plea is simply a plea for release for exit from the inhumane Guantanamo Bay gulag. That's a human response,'' Greens Senator Bob Brown said.

After five years in detention, Hicks, 31, pleaded guilty before a newly constituted US Military Commission hearing to a charge of helping al Qaeda fight American troops and their allies in 2001 during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The chief military tribunal prosecutor, Air Force Colonel Moe Davis, said Hicks could learn his sentence by the end of the week and could be back in Australia by the end of the year.

Under a long-standing deal, Hicks will be allowed to serve the remainder of any jail sentence in Australia.

John Howard, Australia's conservative prime minister and a close ally of US President George W Bush, strongly supported the military tribunals but, under growing political pressure at home, had recently complained to Washington about the long delay in bringing Hicks to trial.

Howard said today the Australian government welcomed the latest development and progress towards resolving the Hicks case.

''It has always been our view that Hicks should face justice, but we have been very concerned about the time that it has taken,'' Howard told parliament.

Growing public support for Hicks, and concerns from lawyers, judges and church leaders over the military commission system, has divided the government and threatened to become an issue at national elections, due in the second half of 2007.

One government lawmaker, Senator Barnaby Joyce, continued his criticism of the military commissions today and said Hicks had pleaded guilty to ensure he could get out of Guantanamo Bay.

''Unfortunately, I believe he's pleading guilty partly by reason of a judicial process, or rather a process, that has a lot of flaws in it,'' Joyce told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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Justice Minister David Johnston said, however, that by pleading guilty, Hicks had dispelled media misconceptions about his actions in Afghanistan.

''There's a stark contrast between him being a theological tourist and pleading guilty to aiding terrorists,'' Johnston said.

Brown, who heckled Bush about Hicks when the president addressed the Canberra parliament in 2003, said the guilty plea would not have held up under the Australian legal system.

''His urge to get home to Australia almost under any circumstances has overtaken him. There is no way that this can be seen as a genuine guilty plea,'' Brown said.

''Hicks has been brought before a kangaroo court. He's found his escape was to plead guilty. Who wouldn't do that after the torture and the hell-hole conditions in Guantanamo Bay? But the injustice of it remains,'' Brown said.

He said the guilty plea would not end the political debate in Australia about Hicks and his treatment.

REUTERS MS RN1135