Guantánamo prisoner David Hicks incarcerated in high-security Australian jail

Hicks, a 31-year-old father of two, was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 by the Northern Alliance, sold to the US military for $US1,000 and transferred to Guantánamo in January 2002. With slavish backing from the Howard government, he was incarcerated by the US military for almost five and a half years in Guantánamo, where he was subjected to torture and protracted periods of solitary confinement aimed at forcing him to admit to various trumped up terrorism charges.

Hicks’s transfer to an Australian prison followed a US military “kangaroo court” in March where he was bullied into pleading guilty to “providing material support for a terrorist group”. The charge was retrospective, violated the US Constitution and Australian law and, like his incarceration in Guantánamo itself, constituted a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Under the transfer arrangements Hicks, who will be released from the high-security prison on December 29, is banned from making any media comment for 12 months. The purpose of this measure is to gag him in the leadup to the next federal election and prevent him from defending himself against ongoing government and media slanders.