... in Australia to serve the remaining 9 months of his sentence. He'll return to a public life, of sorts, not long after the federal election, likely to be in November, however his case will certainly be a factor during the election.
As I've said previously, I'm not at all sympathetic to those who see Hicks as exclusively a maytr. He was, almost certainly, a mercenary. However, I'm entirely unconvinced by the case against him and no more convinced by his guilty plea - afterall some of the actions he admitted where not crimes at the time he apparently committed them.
What significance his return has on the election is unclear - Howard may hope to have somewhat diffused the impact by having him back but this could backfire. Rudd won't be camping out in Adelaide, but the Greens and some Dems will and Howard will still have to defend at least one or two of his various positions...
The Hicks who'll have the biggest influence on this year's election is not David, it's his eminently belieavable and reasonable father, Terry.
5 years ago
2 comments:
Hey, I like the pond scum imagery...
I am intrigued about the legal aspects of his detention. He wasn't convicted by a civil authority, was he? So, I wonder about what reciprocal arrangements Australia has with the US to enable martial convictions to be swapped. Intriguing. New Zealand avoids this whole schemozzle by not having any exchange agreements. Not for any virtuous reasons - but simply if Australia got wind that NZ was prepared to repatriate its scum bags, the various Aussie jurisdictions could pour hundreds of costly kiwis out of their prison beds. NZ could respond in kind - but the tens of Aussies would hardly free up enough space to cope!
I don't give one root about this stupid kid...(let's face it, at best Hicks' actions were stupid)...but justice delayed is justice denied. His lengthy detention without charge was an insult to the name of democracy.
If reciprocity was the name of the game, NZ should try to claim some of the tax paid by the thousands of well paid tradies working on the east coast...
I agree with your justice delayed comment but would go a little further ... Hicks was/is an idiot of the cery dangerous zealot variety but that doesn't make him guilty of offences that didn't exist at the time of their commission - very Spielberg/Philip K Dick
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