The Federal Government says it will only consider apologising to former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks if the United States formally quashes his conviction.

Mr Hicks’s lawyer Stephen Kenny last week said he was confident his client’s name would ultimately be cleared.

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Mr Hicks pleaded guilty in 2007 to providing “material support for terrorism” but his legal team claimed that he did so under duress and filed an appeal last year.

Mr Kenny said there had been court rulings that the charge Mr Hicks pleaded guilty to was not actually a crime so the charge was “simply invalid”.

David Hicks now lives in Sydney. Photo: AAP

“[It is] a fact we’ve known for some time, but it’s taken the court some time to come to that conclusion,” Mr Kenny said.

Australian Attorney-General George Brandis said he would wait for official word before responding to the lawyer’s claims.

“I’m aware of statements made on behalf of Mr Hicks by his legal representatives suggesting that in the near future the American government might change its position in relation to his conviction,” Mr Brandis said.

“That hasn’t happened yet, nothing has changed at the moment, in the event that were to happen, that would be the appropriate time to address that issue.”

He defended the Howard government’s handling of the former Guantanamo Bay detainee’s case.

“The Howard government, like the Abbott Government, took appropriate steps to protect the Australian national interest, to support our allies and to participate directly in the fight against terrorism.”

Plea bargain detail delayed legal battle

Mr Hicks’s lawyer Mr Kenny said the delay in his client’s action stemmed from part of his plea bargain in which he agreed he would never appeal his conviction.

He said he expected to hear within a month whether the Military Commission would quash his conviction.

“I have no doubt, that whether or not the Military Commission clears David, he will certainly be cleared in the higher courts of the United States if we need to go there,” Mr Kenny said.

Mr Hicks was captured in Afghanistan and held at the US naval base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 until 2007.

A deal saw him serve out the remainder of his sentence at Yatala Labour Prison in South Australia, near his home city of Adelaide in 2007.

He now lives in Sydney.