http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/habib-begged-for-flights-court-told/2007/11/28/1196036983546.html
Habib begged for flights, court told Amy Coopes November 29, 2007 Mamdouh Habib: Begging letters. Photo: Jon Reid FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib sought refuge for himself and his family in Libya and Iraq, begging the nations' leaders to pay for their travel. Mr Habib's letters to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, penned in the late 1990s, were released yesterday for the first time during a defamation case being heard in the NSW Supreme Court. Egyptian-born Mr Habib, who was arrested in Pakistan on terrorism-related suspicions, told Saddam and Colonel Gaddafi he had been living too long in a nation of infidels in Australia. "We see no other solution than sending letters to all the Muslim leaders who fear the almighty and ask them to help us on our . religious ordeal," Mr Habib wrote. He told the leaders that Australians began hating Muslims when the 1991 Gulf War began. At the time Mr Habib owned a cleaning business with a contract cleaning Australian Defence Forces homes. He said he was confronted by soldiers whose "hatred began to come out of their mouths". A soldier had confronted him when he was praying in a house he was cleaning and asked him whether he was a Muslim and whether he was from Iraq. "Just for this and without any reason they asked me to cancel the contract," Mr Habib said. "They also refused to pay me the fees for the work I done that far, which amounted to about $20,000." Mr Habib said he decided to leave Australia "but, unfortunately, we did not find a single Muslim Arabic country to live in and practice (sic) what God has asked of us". ". now, thank God, we have found a country that is preaching Islam and welcoming Muslim people, but we need financial help because we need to buy the air tickets and a sum of money to start a business together," he said in the letters to the Libyan and Iraqi leaders. "If you accept my family in your country then God will reward you, because we love you in God. Please accept us." The letters were tendered by Nationwide News as part of its defence in a second-stage defamation hearing in the NSW Supreme Court. A jury found that a February 2005 article by Daily Telegraph journalist Piers Akerman defamed Mr Habib by implying he had made false claims about being tortured. Justice Peter McClellan is hearing evidence about defences and damages in the case. Nationwide also tendered interview transcripts, including Mr Habib's first interview with ASIO, federal police and Foreign Affairs Department officers at Guantanamo Bay in May 2002. Mr Habib was questioned about training with al-Qaeda and banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba between July and October 2001 in preparation for hostilities against the governments of Afghanistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir. AAP
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