Kenny described the U.S. detention camp as a "physical and moral back hole"

SYDNEY, December 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Stephen Kenny, the first civilian lawyer given access to Guantanamo, disclosed Thursday, December 18, "unequal treatment" by the U.S. authorities to the detainees, ruling out his client’s chances for a fair trial.

He asserted that the 660 detainees – held for more than two years without charges – were treated differently depending their nationality - with Americans on top.

"I see a great destruction of what I would call the rule of law, that people should be treated equally before the law, that they should have the same standard of justice," Kenny told the BBC.

"This is a case where the standard of justice seems to have different layers, one for the Americans, there may be another one for the British, there is certainly a different one for Australian - less than the American - and the rest of them in the camp... they weren't [part of] the allies' camp is their rationale and they will get a lesser standard than what the Australians will," stressed the Australian lawyer.

He said that U.S. lawyers were starting to understand that the erosion of law at Guantanamo was "an attack on fundamental liberties that will eventually reach into the United States system."

"Black Hole"

Kenny described the highly-fortified U.S. detention camp as nothing but a "physical and moral back hole."

He stressed that his client David Hicks, an Australian convert, had been denied basic human rights after being held for two years without charge.

"He has not been ill-treated since his arrival in Guantanamo Bay, if you ignore the isolation, his lack of access to the outside world and his denial of his basic human rights," said the lawyer.

"What you have got to realize is that he has been caged now for two years," Kenny told National Public Radio.

"For the last six months he has been in a form of solitary confinement. I am extremely concerned about his mental state," he added.

The Australian defense counsel exhorted the U.N. to step in and protect the human rights of the Guantanamo detainees.

Amnesty International condemned in May the U.S. breaches of international law under the cover of the war against terror.

Australian Lawyer, Richard Bourke, had accused the U.S. of using "old-fashioned" torture techniques to force confessions out of Guantanamo detainees.

Mohammad Sagheer, the first Pakistani released from Guantanamo filed suit against the U.S. for $10.4 million in compensation for the "torture and humiliation" he faced in detention.

Trial

Kenny did not expect his Hicks to get fair trial, adding that being granted access to his client was "a small first step but it is no substitute for a fair trial."

"It appears to me Saddam Hussein is going to be afforded a fairer system of justice than what David Hicks will receive," he was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

He also expressed concern at how to offer his client a robust defense, having had no access to him for two years.

Kenny said the U.S. had imposed curbs on what he could tell the media but believed Hicks could be charged with conspiracy when he faces a military commission.

"I have some limitations on what I can and cannot say but I think I can say the charge will be some form of conspiracy charge," he had told a press conference in New York and broadcast in Australia.

Hicks, captured in Afghanistan, has not yet been charged with any crime but the recent appointment of a military lawyer to represent him indicates a move to put him on trial could be imminent.

The Pentagon fired a team of uniformed military lawyers hired to defend detainees held at the Guantanamo base in December, after they protested the unfair trial proceedings.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced last month it would rule on the legality of holding foreigners at the military camp, after a series of cases had been filed on behalf of 16 of the prisoners, including Kuwaitis, Australian and British nationals.