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Guantanamo Detainee Returns to Australia

Al-Qaeda supporter goes straight to prison

By M. Morris,  Newser Staff

Posted May 19, 2007 9:33 PM CDT
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(Newser) – After five years in custody at Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks is back in his native Australia, where the convicted Al-Qaeda supporter will spend the next seven months in a maximum-security prison. His family and other supporters spent years campaigning for his release before Hicks pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to a terrorist organization.

Now 31, Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. After his plea, he was sentenced to seven years, most of which was suspended, and banned from speaking with the media for a year. He was the first Guantanamo detainee tried in an American military court and the first person since World War II to be convicted in a war-crimes tribunal.

Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks is seen in this undated photo released by the Hicks family. Unlike most prison inmates, al-Qaida soldier David hicks will be required to vote in Australia's elections later this year after he returns from Guantanamo Bay to serve out the remainder of his sentence...
Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks is seen in this undated photo released by the Hicks family. Unlike most prison inmates, al-Qaida soldier David hicks will be required to vote in Australia's...   (Associated Press)
In this courtroom sketch reviewed by U.S. Military officials, Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, left, stands with his defense counsel in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Friday, March 30, 2007. An Australian detainee held for five years at Guantanamo, Hicks pled guilty earlier in the week...
In this courtroom sketch reviewed by U.S. Military officials, Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, left, stands with his defense counsel in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Friday, March...   (Associated Press)
David Hicks Petition Delivered To Prime Ministers Office
David Hicks Petition Delivered To Prime Ministers Office   (Getty Images)
In this courtroom sketch reviewed by U.S. Military officials, Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, far left, sits with his defense council in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Friday, March 30, 2007. Hicks, a 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner, faces no more than seven years in an...
In this courtroom sketch reviewed by U.S. Military officials, Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, far left, sits with his defense council in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Friday,...   (Associated Press)
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Timeline: From Adelaide to Afghanistan and back
ninemsn (Aust.)

David Hicks escorted to prison
Sydney Morning Herald

 
Afghanistan • terrorism • David Hicks • Australia • Guantanamo Bay • detainee • Guantanamo prisoners • al-Qaeda

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