SAVE A LIFE - Foreign Prisoners Support Service

DAVID HICKS is expected to plead not guilty to supporting terrorism and attempted murder after the long-awaited charges were filed in Washington.

Hicks' military lawyer, US marine Major Michael Mori, who left Guantanamo Bay a day before the charges were announced, said he had not spoken to Hicks but anticipated he would deny the charges.

Hicks, 31, who has spent more than five years in the military prison in Cuba following his arrest in Afghanistan in 2001, spent most of the past week in briefings with his lawyers and was told of the new charges. His family were also notified.

The charges carry a life sentence but the prosecution said yesterday it would not press for the full life term.

Prime Minister John Howard welcomed the charges being laid after setting a mid-February deadline for progress in the case. He said the charges were very serious and should be dealt with as soon as possible.

"They allege that in the full knowledge of what happened on the 11th of September, he rejoined the Taliban who were, of course, involved through al-Qaeda … on the attacks on the 11th of September," Mr Howard said.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said they wanted the case dealt with "expeditiously and fairly" and would maintain pressure on the Americans.

But Labor legal affairs spokesman Kelvin Thomson denied the US had met the deadline because Hicks had not been formally charged, the convening authority was not in place and there was a prospect of extensive legal challenges.

The chief prosecutor in the US Office of Military Commissions, Colonel Morris Davis, will allege that Hicks had trained to kill and had avoided killing US soldiers in Afghanistan only through lack of opportunity.

"Our theory is that Hicks has attended a number of terrorism training courses where he has perfected his skills in killing," Colonel Davis said.

The prosecution will allege that Hicks had reported to senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, was issued a rifle and grenades, and positioned himself where he thought US and allied forces would be present. "We believe the evidence will show that he did everything humanly possibly to engage against US forces and to kill US forces and it was lack of opportunity that kept him from achieving his objective," Colonel Davis said.

Major Mori questioned the attempted murder charge given Colonel Davis' admission that there was no evidence Hicks shot at anyone while in Afghanistan.

"The old charge of attempted murder has reappeared even after the chief prosecutor has admitted to the ABC that there is no evidence that David shot at anyone in Afghanistan," Major Mori said.

Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, also queried the attempted murder charge. "The Americans say they can't prove he fired a shot or anything," Mr Hicks said. "I think they are saying that just by being there he was going to commit a murder."

Speaking last night in Melbourne at a fund-raising dinner, Terry Hicks said there was a sense of relief that a new process had begun.

He said he still expected it would be a long time before Hicks was dealt with because the military commissions were yet to be established. "Even though there may be charges, they haven't even put the group together who will look at them."

While the convening authority who heads the commissions was announced last week — retired judge Susan Crawford who was a former inspector-general of the Department of Defence in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush — the military panels who will try the cases have not been appointed.

It will be up to Judge Crawford to decide whether the charges filed by Colonel Davis are backed by sufficient evidence to go ahead.

Also charged along with Hicks is Salim Hamdan, the Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee who was allegedly a former bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden.

Hamdan's successful challenge to the legality of the first military commissions took almost three years to reach the US Supreme Court, but succeeded in aborting the process.