Former Guantanamo Bay detainee freed
An Australian former Guantanamo Bay inmate today became a free man for the first time in seven years when the final restrictions stemming from terrorism allegations ended.
David Hicks, a 33-year-old ex-kangaroo skinner and Outback cowboy, spent more than five years in US custody at the military detention centre in Cuba before striking a plea deal that returned him home to Australia to serve a nine-month sentence.
Hicks was released a year ago after completing the sentence for providing support for terrorism, but was placed under a strict court order that required him to report to police three days a week, observe a curfew and banned him from using any telephone or internet account not approved by police.
The order expired at midnight yesterday. Australian Federal Police, which had sought the original order citing national security reasons, said last month it had decided not to ask a court to renew the restrictions.
Hicks has kept a low profile since being released from prison. He is living in his home city of Adelaide, and has said through lawyers and recorded statements that he is struggling to return to a normal life after suffering trauma at Guantanamo Bay.
Hicks was captured by the US-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in late 2001 and handed to US troops invading the country to unseat the Taliban regime following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Hicks spent 5.5 years in captivity without trial at Guantanamo Bay before pleading guilty to supporting terrorism at a US military tribunal in a plea bargain.
He admitted providing material support to al Qaida in exchange for serving a sentence in Australia.
