Opposition backs refusal to compensate detainee

SYDNEY -- Australia's Labor opposition backed the government in its refusal to consider compensation for an Australian freed by U.S. authorities last week after three years in Guantanamo Bay.

Newly elected opposition leader Kim Beazley said Labor had taken a principled stance in supporting Mamdouh Habib's release and believed the government owed a full explanation about its role in the detention of Habib.

But Beazley said he did not support compensation for him, adding, "I am not going to make a hero of Mamdouh Habib."

Habib, 48, was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001 on suspicion of terrorist activities and sent first to Egypt, where his lawyers claim he was tortured before his transfer in May 2002 to the U.S. naval base in Cuba.