DPP drops case against David Hicks

24 Jul 2012, 2:51 pm   -   Source: AAP

Former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks says his name has finally been cleared after a legal bid to stop him making money out of his book was dropped.

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David Hicks will be able to keep any money he makes from his Guantanamo Bay memoir after a legal attempt to stop him profiting from the book was dropped.

Hicks, who was jailed in the US for providing material support to terrorism, said his name had finally been cleared after the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) dropped its bid to prevent him making money from his book, Guantanamo: My Journey.

Outside the Supreme Court in Sydney on Tuesday, he said the decision to drop what had always been a politically motivated action had cleared his name.

"Something that I've said all along ... I feel that this has cleared my name," Mr Hicks told reporters.

"It's always been political."

Profits from the book about his six years in the notorious US detention camp had been frozen under proceeds of crime laws.

But on Tuesday Lionel Robberds QC told Justice Peter Garling the DPP would not be proceeding with the matter.

The DPP later issued a statement saying the director had decided to drop the case because some of the evidence it was relying on might not have been admissible in court.

This evidence included Mr Hicks' guilty plea and other admissions made to the US Military Commission.

Mr Hicks' lawyers had argued the admissions shouldn't be used because of the circumstances in which they were made.

"I reached the view that this office was not in a position to ... satisfy the court that the admissions should be relied upon and decided that these proceedings should not continue," the DPP said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard refused to be drawn on whether the DPP's decision meant Mr Hicks' name had been cleared, saying it was a decision independent of government.

The Australian Greens renewed their call for an independent inquiry into the role the former Australian government played in the treatment of Mr Hicks and the circumstances surrounding his plea deal.

The book is believed to have sold about 30,000 copies and generated about $10,000 for Mr Hicks.

The autobiography recounts his early years growing up in Adelaide, his conversion to Islam to gain a sense of belonging, and his travels to Kosovo and Kashmir to help suffering civilians.

Mr Hicks spent more than five years in the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after being captured in Afghanistan in 2001.

After a plea deal in which he admitted to providing material support for terrorism he was sent to Adelaide's Yatala Prison in April 2007.

He was released in December 2007.

Justice Garling ordered that the Commonwealth pay Mr Hicks' costs.

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