Former Guantánamo Bay inmate David Hicks walked free from an Australian jail after completing a sentence for supporting terrorism on Saturday, vowing not to let down those who got him home.
More than six years after he was captured in Afghanistan, the so-called “Aussie Taliban” was escorted from Adelaide’s maximum security Yalata jail past a media throng broadcasting live images of his release.
It was the public’s first chance to see the 32-year-old former Muslim convert, who remains the only detainee held at the controversial Guantánamo Bay military base in Cuba to be convicted on terrorism charges.
Wearing jeans and a green polo top and appearing chubbier than photos taken before his capture in late 2001, a smiling Hicks met supporters and was immediately driven to an undisclosed location.
Hicks’s lawyer, David McLeod, read a statement on his behalf, which said he was looking forward to “quiet time” with his family and friends.
He also asked to be left alone to make a “slow and gentle” transition to freedom. “I will need time to adjust to society and receive medical care for the consequences of five-and-a-half years in Guantánamo Bay,” he said.
Hicks thanked his family and friends, the lawyers and human rights groups that waged a lengthy campaign on his behalf, and credited the media with bringing his plight to the public’s attention.
“I would like to acknowledge the huge debt of gratitude that I owe the Australian public for getting me home, I will not forget or let you down,” the statement said.
“I had hoped to be able to speak to the media but I am just not strong enough at the moment, it’s as simple as that,” it said.
Hicks’s father, Terry, said during the week that his son would apologise for the inconvenience he had caused Australians, but told reporters outside the prison that it was not necessary to say sorry.
“David’s done five-and-a-half years pretty tough, David has done his time,” Terry Hicks said, insisting that his son’s conviction by the much-criticised United States military tribunal system proved nothing.
Hicks’s case has sparked fierce debate in Australia over whether he was an Islamic militant with links to terrorist groups or a misguided adventurer who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
His five-year incarceration without trial at Guantánamo Bay became an embarrassment for former prime minister John Howard’s government, which was accused of abandoning him while Britain repatriated its detainees.
Expelled from high school at 14, Hicks worked as a kangaroo skinner and rodeo rider in the Outback and fathered two children before converting to Islam in the late 1990s.
He was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 and accused of fighting alongside the Taliban against the US-led forces that invaded the country after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
In a letter home penned during his time in Afghanistan, Hicks wrote of meeting al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and referred to him as a “lovely brother”.
Transferred to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002, Hicks was eventually charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy.
The charge was later downgraded to providing material support to terrorism after US courts ruled the Guantánamo system of military tribunals was unconstitutional.
Hicks’s lawyers agreed to a deal under which he pleaded guilty and agreed to a 12-month media gag in return for being allowed to serve the bulk of his nine-month sentence in Australia, where he returned last May.
Hicks made no mention of his alleged links to terrorism in his statement, even though an Australian court this month ruled that he remained a terror risk.
The court imposed strict conditions on his release, including a curfew, regular reports to a police station, a ban on leaving Australia and limits on him owning a cellphone. — AFP