Canberra: No apology to ex-Guantanamo detainee
February 19, 2015
Former terror detainee David Hicks welcomed a US court's decision to overturn his terrorism conviction on Thursday, eight years after he was transferred from the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay to a facility in Adelaide.
Hicks was held in Guantanamo from 2002 to 2007 after Hicks pleads guiltyhe pleaded guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda while in Afghanistan.
Hicks claimed he was "subjected to five and a half years of physical and psychological torture" during his prison term in Guantanamo, but Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters he would not apologize "for the actions that Australian governments take to protect our country."
The former terror suspect had been "up to no good on his own admission," Abbott said, but Hicks blamed Australia's government of not doing enough to help him out of Guantanamo.
He demanded that Sydney pay his medical bills for his ongoing dental, back and joint problems, which he blamed on his time in Guantanamo.
Paramilitary training in Afghanistan
David Hicks was arrested in 2001 in Afghanistan and accused of fighting alongside the Taliban against US forces, which invaded the country following the 9/11 attacks.
He was captured by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and turned to US forces, who detained him in Guantanamo from 2002 to 2007, when he pleaded guilty to providing material support to Al Qaeda.
His plea bargain suspended most of his sentence and he returned to Adelaide in Australia to serve the remaining nine months of his seven-year sentence.
US military courts 'inefficient'
Hicks' US lawyer Wells Dixon said the court's decision was a "confirmation that he is actually innocent."
The Guantanamo commission has finalized six cases at the trial level, all of which have ended in convictions. Three of those convicts' sentences have been reversed while the rest are on appeal.
Rights activists have criticized the court's decision saying it demonstrated the failure of military commissions. They say the US federal court system is much better equipped to deal with terror suspects.
mg/rc (AP, AFP, dpa)