Aussie Gitmo Convict Freed From Prison

Hicks served out sentence for aiding al-Qaeda in homeland

By Will McCahill, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 28, 2007 5:13 PM CST

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Aussie Gitmo Convict Freed From Prison — In this courtroom sketch reviewed by U.S. Military officials, Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, far left, sits with his defense council in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Friday, March 30, 2007. Hicks, a 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner, faces no more than seven years in an... (Associated Press)

David Hicks, who pleaded guilty to aiding al-Qaeda in a US military court at Guantanamo, walked free from a jail in his native Australia on Saturday local time after finishing his sentence. Hicks, 32, was captured fighting alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and served 5 years at Gitmo before a plea deal in March allowed him to return home, the AP reports.

"There'll be some sort of apology for what he's supposed to have done and what people believe he's done," Terry Hicks said before his son's release. "It is important to him that he gets this message across." David Hicks said in a statement that he wasn't strong enough to speak publicly and that his plea deal requires him "not to speak to the media on a range of issues before March 30," the Sydney Morning Herald reports. (More David Hicks stories.)

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