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CANBERRA - Liberal frontbencher and former lawyer Malcolm Turnbull says he cannot understand why David Hicks' lawyers did not push for a plea bargain earlier.
Hicks, who spent five years in a US military prison after he was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, pleaded guilty to a charge of giving material support to terrorism last week.
Under a plea deal negotiated between Hicks' lawyers and the US military commission, he will be returned to Australia from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and will serve just nine months in an Adelaide prison before being set free.
Mr Turnbull said he had been wondering for some time what the motivations were behind stalling a plea deal.
"As a lawyer the thing that I find interesting is that Hicks' lawyers did not seek to get a deal done a lot earlier," Mr Turnbull told ABC radio today.
"I mean David Hicks on a substantive test, on a factual test, was always guilty -- he was caught red-handed," he said.
"Whether he was a foot soldier or more important than that nonetheless he was definitely working with the terrorists, he was seeking to destroy our civilisation."
"Given those circumstances, I've always wondered whether his failure to get a deal done and the apparent lack of interest to get a deal done, I've often wondered what their motivations were there."
- AAP
