December 12, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 17, 1424

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WASHINGTON, Dec 11: A civilian lawyer was to meet for the first time on Thursday with a detainee from the US war on terror at the Guantanamo detention camp, with the first legal aid going to Australian David Hicks.

The lawyer, Stephen Kenny, expressed concern about Hicks’s condition before going to the base in Cuba for the meeting.

Kenny said he planned to spend five days at Guantanamo and would be accompanied by the US military lawyer assigned to Hicks, Marine Corps Major Michael Mori.

In an interview with National Public Radio, Kenny said: “What you have got to realise is that he has been caged now for two years, and for the last six months he has been in a form of solitary confinement.

“I am extremely concerned about his mental state,” he added.

Hicks, 28, was detained as a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan during the military campaign launched after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

He is one of about 660 detainees at Guantanamo, all of whom have been held without charges and have been refused access to lawyers until now.

Hicks is to face a military tribunal, but following an agreement between the Australian and US governments, he will not face the death penalty and he was to get access to a lawyer.

But Kenny has also expressed worries about the legal procedure to be used.

“The most significant factor in the ordinary court of law is that strict rules of evidence apply. These same rules of evidence do not apply to the military tribunal.—AFP