Socialist Alliance condemn US/ Australian torture of Mamdouh Habib

Media release January 17, 2005

After years of campaigning for his freedom, as part of the national campaign, the Socialist Alliance is deeply relieved to hear that Mamdouh Habib is to be released from the US concentration camp, Camp X-Ray, in Guantanamo Bay.

We express our warmest regards to Mr. and Mrs. Habib and their children, all of whom have been put through hell by the US and Australian governments. The Socialist Alliance commits to help the Habib family try to rebuild their life in whatever way we can, free of any harassment or prosecutions.

The Socialist Alliance is outraged by the horrific torture Mr. Habib experienced in both Egypt and Guantanamo Bay at the hands of the U.S government, including electrocution, being stripped and beaten, months long blindfolding, chemical injections, a dog being put on him when he was naked, and interrogators telling him that all his family had been killed. British eyewitnesses have confirmed all this. Revelations from Abu Ghraib only further demonstrate what cruelty the US state is capable of.

The Socialist Alliance similarly condemns the Australian government for its appalling role in the torture of an Australian citizen.

The Australian government:

1) Backed the illegal and indefinite detention of Mr. Habib without charge

2) Applauded the denial of Mr. Habib's basic legal rights (legal counsel, fair trial, the Geneva convention etc.)

3) [According to recently released US military court documents] Had an Australian official witness the torture of Mr Habib.

The federal government has been unrepentant about its despicable brutality. Howard has ruled out compensation or even an apology to the Habib family. The attorney General, Phillip Ruddock has even implied - without a shred of evidence - that Mr. Habib knew in advance about the September 11 World Trade Centre bombing and is threatening to "monitor" and harass Mr Habib when he is returned to Australia. Even Bob Carr has jumped on the wagon announcing the NSW government will be the “praetorian guard” in controlling Mr. Habib.

"Clearly, the Australian and US governments are on the defensive, trying to vilify a victim of its war on civil rights to avoid too much opposition," said Raul Bassi, National Convener of Socialist Alliance. "The Socialist Alliance pledges to expose the government's lies and oppose the misnamed "war on terror", i.e. the plunder of Iraq and destruction of civil rights here in Australia... The release of Mr. Habib will only make us more determined to continue the struggle for the freedom of David Hicks and all the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay."

“Raul Bassi added that the criminals that really needed to be kept under surveillance in the “Habib case” were the federal government. He pledged that Socialist Alliance as an intransigent defender of democratic and civil rights, would do everything in its powerto expose Canberra’s complicity in crimes against humanity, here and Irak.”

The Socialist Alliance demands the Australian government:

· Ensure Mr. Habib is returned to his family immediately

· End the slurs on Mr. Habib's name and cease all state harassment! (Not a shred of evidence has ever existed to charge Mr. Habib with anything. Leave him and his family alone. They have suffered enough

· Immediately issue an apology and compensation to Mr. Habib

· Immediately demand the release of the other Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks

· Immediately condemn the US torture centre, Camp X-ray, and demand its closure

· Immediately withdraw its troops from occupied Iraq

The Canterbury Bankstown Peace group is organizing, on March 15, a mock trial of David Hicks outside the Attorney General's office. The Socialist Alliance will participate in this and others grass-roots actions aiming at freeing Mr. Hicks, the other Australian illegally detained in Guantanamo Bay and closedown Camp X-ray all together.

Raul Bassi National Convener, Ph 0403037376.