Australian Broadcasting Corporation


LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1281116.htm

Broadcast: 12/01/2005

Mamdouh Habib to be released from Guantanamo Bay

Reporter: Jonathan Harley

HEATHER EWART: For three and a half years, Australian terror suspect Mamdouh Habib has been imprisoned in three separate countries without one charge ever being brought against him. Now, he's about to walk free. American and Australian authorities have consistently claimed Habib had prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks. But suddenly last night, the Australian Government announced he would be released and returned home. It's a dramatic vindication of a man whose lawyers and family have always claimed is innocent. But Canberra is still not letting go. In a moment, I'll be speaking to Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, but first, this report from Jonathan Harley.

NEWSFILE: The lawyer acting for an Australian man in US custody for suspected links to the al-Qaeda network says the handling of the case has been disgraceful.

JONATHAN HARLEY: For the best part of the last three years, Mamdouh Habib has been incarcerated here: the United States' detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It's the place America keeps for the men it calls "the worst of the worst" - men accused of being ruthless terrorists.

MAN: These are bad people.

JONATHAN HARLEY: But soon, Mamdouh Habib is to walk free, having never been charged. But how free will he be?

PHILIP RUDDOCK (ATTORNEY-GENERAL): The United States considers Mr Habib to be an enemy combatant who has been detained in accordance with the laws of war.

MAHA HABIB (WIFE OF MAMDOUH HABIB): All I can think about is having him back with us.

STEPHEN HOPPER (MAMDOUH HABIB'S AUSTRALIAN LAWYER): The battle from now on will be to redress the violation of his rights.

JONATHAN HARLEY: The announcement of Mamdouh Habib's release was made late last night and began with an apology.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I apologise first for asking you here so late in the evening, knowing...

JONATHAN HARLEY: There had been no clues as to what was to follow.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: The United States has now advised us that it does not intend to bring charges against Mr Habib. In these circumstances, we have requested Mr Habib's repatriation to Australia. The United States has agreed to that request.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Mamdouh Habib's own family had been told just moments before this public announcement, and his wife, Maha Habib, was so shocked, she needed the Attorney-General's Department official to repeat the news.

MAHA HABIB: I understood it, but I just want to make sure.

JONATHAN HARLEY: You didn't believe him?

MAHA HABIB: No, and then he repeat everything all over again, and I sat down and said, "Are you telling me that my husband's coming soon?", and then he said, "Yes."

JONATHAN HARLEY: For Maha Habib, it's been an excruciating three years of not knowing what's happening to her husband or even where he was being held.

MAHA HABIB: I've been all that time patient, and I think I can be patient until the time or the moment when God demands for him to be returned and reunited with us.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Mamdouh Habib's three-year odyssey began in Pakistan, where he was arrested in October 2001, just weeks after the September 11 attacks in the United States. He was flown from there to Egypt, where Mamdouh Habib was held for six months before being taken to the US military base at Bagram in Afghanistan, and then, for the bulk of his apprehension without charge, to the American detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. It's expected Mamdouh Habib will be home with his family within weeks, if not days. But his legal battles are not over.

STEPHEN HOPPER: We'll be seeking a number of remedies that are appropriate in the circumstances.

JONATHAN HARLEY: What do they include?

STEPHEN HOPPER: Well, obviously compensation. There could be defamation actions to restore his reputation, and various other things that I'd rather not disclose at this stage.

JONATHAN HARLEY: There are hints of frustration from Attorney-General Philip Ruddock about America's handling of the Habib case.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: But we are nevertheless disappointed at the way in which this matter has been handled; it'd be very foolish to say otherwise.

JONATHAN HARLEY: But there will be no offers of redress from a government which has consistently called Mamdouh Habib a terrorist.

JOHN HOWARD (PRIME MINSTER): We don't have any apology to offer.

JOURNALIST: What about compensation?

JOHN HOWARD: No. We won't be offering compensation.

JONATHAN HARLEY: In fact, Mamdouh Habib is not out of legal danger. His American lawyer, Joe Margulies, has told the 7.30 Report that he's only guardedly optimistic that Mamdouh Habib will be released soon from Guantanamo Bay.

JOE MARGULIES (MAMDOUH HABIB'S AMERICAN LAWYER): I have not heard, at least from the United States Government, anything official. All I have read is the same thing anyone could read, which is the Department of Defense press release saying that while he will be released, "the timing remains under discussion", and that is altogether too vague and indefinite for me to be comfortable.

JONATHAN HARLEY: There also remains the prospect of charges being brought against him in Australia and the likelihood of ongoing surveillance by intelligence authorities.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: But as I said, he remains of interest in a security context because of his former associations and activities.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Mamdouh Habib has kept controversial company. He was filmed in 1991 in New York among supporters of militant Egyptian-born cleric Omar Abdul Rahman. The so-called Blind Sheik was later convicted over the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. American and Australian authorities maintain that Mamdouh Habib later trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and even had prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks. But with insufficient evidence to even bring charges, the credibility of Mamdouh Habib's three-year legal limbo comes under renewed scrutiny.

PROFESSOR DON ROTHWELL (INTERNATIONAL LAW, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY): Australians should be aware that they cannot seek any guarantees from the representations of their government, from government officials or from government ministers if they've been improperly detained while overseas.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Just last week, papers lodged in a US court alleged an Australian official witnessed Mamdouh Habib's apprehension and interrogation in Pakistan, before he was flown to Egypt, where he was subjected to "unspeakable brutality". Professor of International Law Don Rothwell believes that the government must explain what happened and that history will judge its handling of Mamdouh Habib harshly.

PROFESSOR DON ROTHWELL: An Australian citizen was effectively abandoned whilst overseas, whilst having their human rights abused, and it will be a fairly shameful episode.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Maha Habib just wants to see her husband together with their children. She's worried about what physical and psychological state they'll find him in, and doesn't know how they'll rebuild their lives.

MAHA HABIB: I think they should back off and just leave us alone and leave him alone. He's been through a lot, and they know that, and for nothing, you know. He committed no crime; crime been committed against him, you know. I think the criminal in this situation is the government. They committed the crime.

HEATHER EWART: Jonathan Harley reporting there.