Former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks should go ahead and have his name cleared of any terrorism links, because he was never in breach of the law in Australia or abroad, his former lawyer says.
Adelaide-born Mr Hicks was held at the US military detention centre in Cuba for more than five years after he was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001.
He pleaded guilty at a US military commission hearing in 2007 to providing material support to terrorism.
Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to seven years' jail but ordered to serve only nine months, with the rest of his sentence suspended.
He returned to Australia and was released from Adelaide's Yatala Jail in December 2007.
Questions have been raised about the conditions under which Mr Hicks signed his 2007 confession.
"It has always been my position that he never committed any crime," his former lawyer, Adelaide-based Steve Kenny, told AAP on Sunday.
"We looked at Australian law, international law (and) Afghani law, and we were unable to identify any breach of those laws.
"The law that he eventually pleaded guilty to was not actually an international war crime at all.
"In fact it was a crime that didn't exist."
Now 35, Mr Hicks lives in Sydney following his marriage to Aloysia Brooks last August.
He has recently sought legal advice to have his terrorism conviction quashed, Fairfax Media reported on Sunday, and may also appeal to US President Barack Obama for a pardon.
If he succeeds in clearing his name, Mr Hicks will be free to publish a book about his ordeal - something he has been unable to do to date because he is bound by laws that prevent people profiting from their crimes.
"I would support David publishing his story because I think it is a very important story - one that should be told," Mr Kenny said.
"What happened to him is quite significant - an Australian citizen was essentially ill treated at the whim of the Australian government.
"And then released essentially at the whim of the Australian government."
Co-director of the Sydney Centre for International Law, Associate Professor Ben Saul, is assisting Mr Hicks with clearing his name, Fairfax Media reported.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he would not comment on any legal action Mr Hicks might want to take.
"Whether David Hicks takes legal action, either in the United States or in Australia, is entirely a matter for him and for his legal advisers," Mr Smith told reporters in Perth on Sunday.