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Bring David Hicks HomeGetUp does find control orders in general highly problematic, and further believes that, based on the evidence publicly available, they would be inappropriate for David Hicks. We will continue to fight any infringements on the basic rights and liberties of all Australians, including David Hicks. The following day's Australian on page 2 contained a clarification of the article and a letter from GetUp to correct this error. David arrived home on 20 May 2007. The Prime Minister may have forfeited his duty to defend Australian rights, but we still believe in the bedrock values of our democracy: including the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech and the prohibition against torture. And we will not let our Government forget. The campaign to Bring David Hicks home all started with the petition below, and grew with your actions and support to include a Newspoll survey, billboards, television ad and carbon-offset mobile billboards, full-page advertisements in major newspapers, a candlelight vigil in Adelaide, and a packed lecture by David's US military lawyer, Major Mori. Our 'Postcards to the PM' saw 10,143 - or 1 in every 8 - residents in the PM's own electorate demand action. After languishing in detention in Guantanamo Bay for more than five years without trial and pleading guilty to one element of the single charge remaining against him, David Hicks struck a deal that will see him locked up in an Australian prison until just after this year's federal election, serving nine months of his seven year sentence in Adelaide. The deal also gagged him from talking about his experience - experts question the legality of such an order. The evidence against David Hicks will never really be tested in a proper court, and we will never feel certain whether five years plus of punishment was given to an innocent or guilty man. Unlike other governments, ours failed to stand up for its citizen's basic human and legal rights - and that matters more than what kind of man David Hicks is. David is now back home in Adelaide, and will be held in Yatala Prison until shortly after the federal election later this year. While his long-overdue return was welcome, it shouldn't mask the fact that his experience demonstrated the fragility of our fundamental legal and human rights. His homecoming has brought with it some bigger home truths about our Government's priorities, and they must now face some tough questions about their handling of his case. The original petition text: "Dear Mr Downer All Australians have the right to receive a fair trial. The British, Spanish, and French Governments have all refused to allow their citizens to be tried in Guantanamo Bay. Even the Americans have removed their citizens from Guantanamo Bay and ensured they face a fair trial at home. As Australian Foreign Minister you should have the courage to do the same. We demand that you act immediately to bring David Hicks back here to face an Australian court."
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