US still expects to prosecute Australian terror suspect

LOS ANGELES - The US government still expects to prosecute David Hicks, despite the Australian terror suspect's court victory that paves the way for him to become a British citizen.

"The Department of Defence isn't going to speculate on what actions the British or Australian governments are going to take," Pentagon spokesman Major Michael Shavers said today.

"Any decision on British citizenship for David Hicks does not affect the crimes he is alleged to have committed and for which he is expected to be tried by military commission."

Britain's High Court yesterday opened the way for Hicks to be registered as a British citizen, which could lead to his release from the US military prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where has been locked up for almost four years.

Hicks' legal team and supporters believe if Hicks is registered as a British citizen, the British Foreign Office will remove him from US military detention, just as it did for nine other Britons once held at Guantanamo Bay.

"It is very positive," Hicks' US military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, said.

Hicks' legal team argues there is a legal agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States that no British citizen will face a military commission.

They believe Hicks, once a British citizen, should enjoy the same benefit.

The British Home Office has 14 days to appeal the High Court's ruling.

"We are waiting for the Home Office if it is going to appeal or not," Maj Mori said.

"That's the next step.

"Beyond that, hopefully they get Mr Hicks' citizenship properly registered and all of the administrative things that need to be accomplished done."

The Washington DC-based Maj Mori has regularly visited Hicks at Guantanamo since Hicks was placed in the prison in January 2002, after being captured in Afghanistan.

Maj Mori said he was not sure when he or any of Hicks' other legal team members would travel to Guantanamo to fill Hicks in on the High Court decision and his options.

The decision to pursue British citizenship came earlier this year when Maj Mori and another Hicks lawyer, Michael Griffin, were speaking with Hicks during a Guantanamo visit.

The conversation turned to the Ashes cricket test matches and Hicks told how his mother was born in Britain and lived the early part of her life in London.

That raised the possibility Hicks could apply for British citizenship.

Hicks, 30, formerly of Adelaide, was scheduled to be prosecuted by a US military commission at Guantanamo in November, but on the eve of the case a US District Court judge issued a stay to halt the proceedings until a Supreme Court case involving another Guantanamo inmate was finalised.

Hicks has been charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder by an underprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy.

He faces life in prison if convicted.

Hicks was captured in Afghanistan while allegedly fighting with Taleban forces.

- AAP