May 20, 2007 12:10 am US/Eastern
Convicted Gitmo Detainee Back Home In Australia
ADELAIDE, Australia (CBS) ―
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David Hicks was the the first terrorist suspect convicted by a U.S. military commission in Cuba. (File)
AP
Convicted al Qaeda supporter David Hicks landed in his hometown in a private jet Sunday after more than five years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Hicks -- the first terrorist suspect convicted by a U.S. military commission in Cuba -- was transferred to a South Australia state
prison to serve the final seven months of his sentence for aiding al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
"Mr. Hicks is now in the custody of the South Australian correctional services," Attorney General Philip Ruddock said in a
brief statement confirming Hicks' return to Australia.
Hicks, 31, a one-time cowboy and kangaroo skinner, made the flight from Guantanamo Bay in a government-chartered Gulfstream G550 jet with an entourage of Australian police, prison officers and his Australian lawyer.
His flight was diverted through Mexico because the United States had refused Hicks entry to American airspace, local media reported.
Hicks was captured by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in December 2001. He pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al Qaeda.
Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to nine months in prison — a fraction of the life term he was eligible for on a charge of providing material support for terrorism. He also agreed to a 12-month order prohibiting him from talking to the media, and stated he had "never been treated illegally" since he was captured in Afghanistan and taken to Guantanamo.
Hicks was tried by a military tribunal under a system created by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that has come under criticism as a violation of the prisoners' right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts.
A Muslim convert, Hicks was accused of attending al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. He had spent only two hours on the Taliban front line before it collapsed in November 2001 under attack by U.S. Special Forces and the Northern Alliance.
While fleeing, Hicks came across a group of Arab fighters who told him they were heading back to the front to fight to the death. Hicks declined to join them and was captured in December 2001 as he tried to escape into Pakistan, according to the military's charge sheet.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department withdrew one of the many proposals aimed at restricting attorney access to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
There are about 385 detainees being held at the U.S. military base, which has housed suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
CBS News Interactive: Guantanamo Tribunals
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