The US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that houses suspects in the "war on terror" is a "physical and moral black hole," the first civilian lawyer allowed to meet a client there said last night.
Australian lawyer Mr Stephen Kenny, who last week visited detainee Mr David Hicks of Adelaide, Australia, said at a news briefing in New York that Mr Hicks was in "reasonable spirits" but "quite depressed about his conditions".
Mr Hicks (28) and hundreds of other detainees were arrested in the US invasion of Afghanistan in response to the September 11th attacks by the al-Qaeda network.
The detainees have been held for two years without charges or contact with the outside world, drawing worldwide criticism of this aspect of Washington's "war on terrorism".
Mr Kenny was accompanied at the Navy base by US military defense counsel and restrictions were placed on what he could say about his five days of meetings.
The government gave permission for the visit after the US Supreme Court said last month it would review a ruling that the detainees are outside the jurisdiction of US courts. The court would decide by the end of June the cases of two British nationals, two Australians and 12 Kuwaitis, but a ruling would likely affect all detainees.
Mr Kenny said the United States had not issued a timetable for Mr Hicks's case and "I don't know when, or if, David will be formally charged, or if or when he will come to trial."
Mr Hicks, a convert to Islam, was arrested in December 2001 while fighting with the Taliban. Mr Kenny said Mr Hicks, one of two Australians being held, had not killed or injured US or Australian military personnel.
Mr Kenny referred to a lecture last month by British law Lord Johan Steyn, who called the US Navy base "a legal black hole" for suspected soldiers of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban government.
"After having been there, it is a physical and a moral black hole," said Mr Kenny.