 MAMDOUH Habib has been reunited with his family after arriving back in Australia. "He has been reunited with his family," Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said. "His family were informed that he was arriving and as was his legal practitioner," he said. "We understand they've made arrangements to spend time with him at an undisclosed location of their choosing. "But he's not in custody, he's at liberty, and the exact whereabouts are really a matter for him and his family." The former Guantanamo Bay detainee arrived in Sydney about 4:00pm (AEDT) today, ending more than three years of detention in the US as a terror suspect. Mr Habib, released by the US from the base in Cuba without being charged, stepped off a private jet at Sydney Airport about half an hour after the aircraft — marked only with a US flag — had landed. Mr Habib, bearded, wearing a white T-shirt, long dark pants and carrying a blue shirt, emerged from the plane to be greeted on the tarmac. He then went to a small propeller aircraft, which took off for an unknown destination, witnesses said. Mr Habib was accompanied on landing by two men in suits.
| Oh, no! Not men in suits! |
After being reunited with his wife and four children, including a four-year-old daughter he is yet to meet, Mr Habib will be evaluated by a clinical psychiatrist so his lawyers can assess his mental state. The assessment is expected to take several days and is a precondition to his lawyers allowing him to give paid media interviews and earn his first income since he was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001. The Federal Government yesterday repeated its view that any payment Mr Habib received for his story could be confiscated under Proceeds of Crime legislation, despite no charges likely to be brought against him for the time he allegedly spent with al-Qaeda before and after the September 11 attacks. Mr Ruddock said the Government "certainly can't gag him" but was examining whether Mr Habib could profit from telling his story. "He's free to tell his story as he sees fit but we are looking at the issue of whether or not he can profit from that," he said. Asked if was interested in hearing Mr Habib's story, Mr Ruddock said he was more interested in hearing the truth and some of the allegations of abuse made by Mr Habib's lawyers. "I'm more interested, I might say, in the truth," he said. A New South Wales Police officer also confirmed Mr Habib would not fall under the spotlight of the state's counter-terrorism laws. He has at least one criminal matter outstanding, however, involving accused Sydney terrorist Bilal Khazal, whom Mr Habib alleges assaulted him in 1999. |