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Hicks Will Walk After 9 Months

Australian's 7-year sentence for aiding terrorists suspended in exchange for silence

By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 31, 2007 11:06 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Australian terror suspect David Hicks will serve just nine months more in detention, the AP reports, despite receiving a seven-year sentence from a military tribunal at Guantánamo yesterday. In an extraordinary plea deal, the rest of the sentence was suspended in exchange for his silence about his treatment during his five years in detention, which became an international issue.

Under the plea deal,  Hicks signed a statement that he "has never been illegally treated" while in captivity and agreed not to sue over that treatment  or "communicate in any way with the media" for a year. Hicks, who trained in an Al  Qaeda camp to fight in Afghanistan, plead guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization.

In this courtroom sketch reviewed by U.S. Military officials, Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, left, sits 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...
In this courtroom sketch reviewed by U.S. Military officials, Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, left, sits with his defense counsel in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Friday, March...   (Associated Press)
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"It's a modern cutting out of his tongue."
New York Times

 
Afghanistan • David Hicks • Australia • military tribunal • Guantanamo Bay • guilty plea

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