[JURIST] Australian Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] may serve up to seven more years in US military custody before facing trial under a new military tribunal system, his military lawyer Major Michael Mori said Sunday. Since the US Supreme Court's decision [JURIST report] in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [opinion text] found US military commissions as constituted illegal under military law and the Geneva Conventions, a new commission or process will have be established to try Hicks.

Mori said delay is inevitable as lawyers for other detainees would challenge the establishment of whatever new tribunal is established, leaving Hicks' future uncertain until the disputes are resolved and the new tribunal is in place. Mori again called upon the Australian government to help Hicks, saying "my country won't tolerate the military commissions for our own citizens and it's odd to see a country (whose) government will go along with it." Despite Mori's previous requests, Australia has refused to extradite Hicks [JURIST report] or otherwise assert its own jurisdiction, although it has suggested that if convicted he would be imprisoned in Australia [JURIST report] after trial. The Sydney Morning Herald has local coverage.