Sydney, Oct 08: Lawyers accused the US military of torturing two Australians held as suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay today and threatened to take the case to a United Nations Tribunal. US-based Australian lawyer Richard Bourke claims detainees at Guantanamo Bay were subject to "medieval" torture techniques, including having rubber bullets fired at them and being forced to stand in a crucifix position in the sun until they collapsed.

He alleged Australian terrorist suspects David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib were among those tortured, pointing to the US military's ruling earlier this year that hicks would be one of the first Guantanamo detainees to face trial. Bourke said the US government wanted to stage a series of "show trials" of Guantanamo prisoners, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost two years ago.

He said he was searching for a government courageous enough to back his call for the UN standing committee on torture.

"There is enough evidence out there to justify them looking at what's occurring and they've certainly looked at other situations with far less evidence," he said. Bureau Report