David Hicks and his US-based lawyers are filing an appeal against his conviction for providing material support for terrorism.  The one-time Muslim convert is renouncing his confession as he renounced his former religion.

“Years after Hicks was convicted and served his sentence, a federal court has concluded that the process by which he was convicted was unlawful,” said Hicks’ attorney Wells Dixon of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Hicks was living under the name Muhammed Dawood when he was rounded up with Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2001, designated an “enemy combatant”, and tossed into Guantanamo Bay prison for what turned out to be five years.  The US didn’t filed charges against him until 2004 under a made-up Bush administration kangaroo court scheme that was ruled unconstitutional. 

Charges were re-filed in 2007 and Hicks entered what is known in American law as an “Alford Plea” – A “guilty” plea in which the defendant doesn’t actually admit guilt, but rather just want to give the government what it wants to make the case go away.  He was sent back to Oz to serve the remaining months of his sentence in the Yatala stockade.

But Hicks was prosecuted under a law that was enacted in 2006, but applied retroactively, something an appeals court said could not be done when ruling in another case.  Dixon wants the court to apply the same ruling to Hicks’ case and overturn his conviction.