Handwriting expert debunks Habib evidence

"A handwriting expert has cast doubt on whether former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib wrote a series of damning notes about weapons training that have been at the heart of the Federal Government's case against him.

"In yet another blow to the authorities' argument that the Sydney father is a national security threat, questions have also been raised about whether just one person penned the 10 pages of handwritten notes and diagrams about guns and military-style weapons alleged to have been seized from Mr Habib's home in the city's southwest during a raid in 2001.

"Forensic document examiner Paul Westwood, who was engaged by The Weekend Australian to examine the documents, has found considerable differences between Mr Habib's handwriting and that in the notes.

"'The presence of what appear to be significant differences between some characters in the questioned and specimen documents gives rise to some doubt that they were written by one and the same person,' said Mr Westwood, the former director of the document examination section of the Australian Federal Police.

"The notes have been used by authorities to prosecute their case that Mr Habib, who was detained in Pakistan in 2001 and held at Guantanamo Bay until his release without charge in February 2005, had undertaken weapons training with the now banned group Lashka e-Toiba in Pakistan.

"Mr Habib has always maintained he did not write the notes, some of which describe the use of weapons, including an AK47 and 60mm mortar and a missile.

"He also insists he had never seen an exercise book authorities claim was his, before it was shown to him during his interrogation in Egypt, where he was held before his transfer to Guantanamo Bay ..."
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