By Annabel Crabb London
DAVID Hicks was secretly made a British citizen inside his Guantanamo Bay cell last month, but spent only hours as an Englishman before his status was stripped from him.
In an extraordinary chain of events, Hicks was told in his cell on July 6 that the British Government had finally complied with a High Court order to register him as an Englishman.
But the following day - the first anniversary of the 2005 terrorist attacks on the London Underground - he was told that British Home Secretary John Reid had personally revoked the privilege.
Hicks, whose mother is UK-born, was given no opportunity to seek legal advice between the two pieces of news.
The manoeuvre was made possible by amendments contained in a new British law that appeared to have been drafted in response to the Hicks case. The amendments give the Home Secretary full discretion to strip an individual of his or her British citizenship.
Hicks's British lawyer, Stephen Grosz, was only advised of the developments after they had occurred.
The High Court ordered the speedy registration of Hicks as a British citizen in December last year, but the Home Office did not comply until July - more than six months later.
"He was a British citizen for a matter of hours, I believe - we were told immediately after it all happened," Mr Grosz said.
Asked his opinion of the tactic, Mr Grosz said: "I think it was completely wrong of them to have sat on his application until they were ready to grant citizenship and deprive him of it immediately.
"I think it was an abuse of power."
Mr Grosz said the Hicks legal team was planning appeals to the Special Immigrations Appeals Commission in the UK, and an application to the High Court for judicial review.