"The old charge of attempted murder has reappeared even after the chief prosecutor has admitted to the ABC that there is no evidence that David shot at anyone in Afghanistan," Major Mori said.
Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, also queried the attempted murder charge. "The Americans say they can't prove he fired a shot or anything," Mr Hicks said. "I think they are saying that just by being there he was going to commit a murder."
Speaking last night in Melbourne at a fund-raising dinner, Terry Hicks said there was a sense of relief that a new process had begun.
He said he still expected it would be a long time before Hicks was dealt with because the military commissions were yet to be established. "Even though there may be charges, they haven't even put the group together who will look at them."
While the convening authority who heads the commissions was announced last week retired judge Susan Crawford who was a former inspector-general of the Department of Defence in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush the military panels who will try the cases have not been appointed.
It will be up to Judge Crawford to decide whether the charges filed by Colonel Davis are backed by sufficient evidence to go ahead.
Also charged along with Hicks is Salim Hamdan, the Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee who was allegedly a former bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden.
Hamdan's successful challenge to the legality of the first military commissions took almost three years to reach the US Supreme Court, but succeeded in aborting the process.