By Annabel Crabb and LondonMark Russell
THE British Government can no longer legally deny David Hicks his claim for British citizenship.
Lawyers were advised in London late on Friday that the British Court of Appeal has refused to allow any further appeals from the British Home Office in the long-running case.
The news means that the Home Office, which has twice lost to the Hicks legal team, must now resume the process of declaring Hicks to be a UK citizen.
David Hicks' father, Terry, said yesterday the decision was "absolutely brilliant".
The Sunday Age broke the news of the court's decision to Terry Hicks yesterday afternoon while he was watching a local footy game in Adelaide.
Mr Hicks said he expected to be fully briefed on the case by his son's US military lawyer, Michael Mori, late last night.
He believes Britain will now be under intense pressure to get his son out of Guantanamo Bay.
"It's going to be very, very interesting and I think the British should make overtures to the Americans to release him," Mr Hicks said.
"It does give me hope but it depends on whether the British will defend one of their own."
When asked if he was confident his son would finally be released, Mr Hicks said: "After all this time, I never get really confident. The day I'll be confident is when he's standing in front of me here in Adelaide." The news is complicated, however, by the fact that Hicks is now being held in solitary confinement, a measure designed to punish him, according to Mr Mori, for complaining about his conditions.
Moazzam Begg, a British former detainee who spent nearly 20 months in solitary confinement before his release two years ago as part of a deal between the US and British governments, said Hicks would be finding his situation "very draining".
"There is nothing to look forward to, as far as he's concerned," he said. "These are desperate measures that are being taken (by the US military), and I think the British Government is going to continue to try and block this from every angle.
"It's a great irony — he has only been rejected by the British because of where he is, but he only sought British citizenship because he's there."
Hicks is entitled to a British passport because his mother was born in England.
The Home Office refused to accept him because of his alleged loyalties to "enemies of Britain", but the High Court last year ruled in Hicks' favour, and the Court of Appeal last month supported that judgement in a three-nil decision.
The Home Office sought leave to make a further appeal, but Friday's decision scotches the Government's plans.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office, speaking to The Sunday Age early yesterday, appeared to be unaware of the decision.
"When the original ruling came through, we said we were disappointed at that point, so I imagine that would stand," she said.
The Home Office was in uproar on Friday after the sacking of home secretary Charles Clarke by Mr Blair.
The new Home Secretary, Blair loyalist and former defence minister John Reid, refused to comment on any Home Office matters on Friday after his appointment, declaring that he was on a "steep learning curve".