Fed: US blocks Hicks' plea for independent mental health check

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2006
Fed: US blocks Hicks' plea for independent mental health check

US military authorities have blocked a request by Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate
DAVID HICKS .. to undergo an independent mental health assessment.

HICKS' Pentagon lawyer .. US Major MICHAEL MORI .. has told Fairfax newspapers a visit
by PAUL MULLEN .. clinical director of Victoria's Forensic Mental Service .. planned for
next month has been vetoed.

Fairfax says HICKS is entitled only to an assessment by US military psychologists ..

who've also been involved in his interrogation.

Major MORI says he wants HICKS to get help .. adding the Australian won't open up to his jailers.

HICKS has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since January 2002 .. after being arrested
in Afghanistan on or around December 9, 2001, during the US invasion.

He's pleaded NOT guilty to charges of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy
.. but remains incarcerated as the US enacts new regulations governing the military commission
expected to try him.

The Australian government believes HICKS could face charges next month.

But Major MORI doubts American assurances to Defence Minister BRENDAN NELSON and Foreign
Affairs Minister ALEXANDER DOWNER during their visit to Washington last week.

AAP RTV vpm/psm/

KEYWORD: HICKS (SYDNEY)

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