Rudd wants PM's statement on Hicks plea bargain
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Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd wants Prime Minister John Howard to reveal the content of any discussions he had with the US Vice-President Dick Cheney about releasing David Hicks from Guantanamo Bay.
An article in Harper's Magazine quotes an unnamed US military officer as saying that Vice-President Cheney and Mr Howard agreed on the plea bargain.
The officer described the treatment of the issue as demoralising and was quoted as saying the whole process had disintegrated into a political charade.
After five years of detention in Guantanamo Bay, a deal was sealed for 32-year-old Hicks to serve a nine-month prison sentence in Australia, subject to him pleading guilty to a charge of providing material support for terrorism.
Hicks agreed to the deal in March and is now due for release from Adelaide's Yatala Prison at the end of the year.
After the deal was announced, Mr Howard denied any involvement in the plea bargain.
"We didn't impose the sentence, the sentence was imposed by the military commission and the plea bargain was worked out between the military prosecution and Mr Hicks' lawyers," Mr Howard said in March.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer denies Mr Howard struck a deal to have Hicks released but Mr Rudd says he has his suspicions.
"I would be very interested to hear Mr Howard's statement on what the Vice-President has had to say today. That's the first point," he said.
"Secondly in relation to Mr Hicks I have never defended anyone when it comes to terrorist acts."
Meanwhile, the South Australian Government has passed the Criminal Assets Confiscation Bill in an effort to stop Hicks from selling his story.
The new law aims to stop serious criminals profiting from their crimes.
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