Hicks guilty plea to escape Guantanamo hell, says father
David Hicks, a 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner, entered the surprise plea at the first session of the tribunals set up after the US Supreme Court struck down the Pentagon’s previous efforts to try Guantanamo prisoners. The military said he could be sentenced this week and will likely be returned to Australia this year to serve his time there.
Mr Hicks appeared focused as his Pentagon-appointed attorney told the judge his client was pleading guilty to one of two counts of providing material support for terrorism. Asked by the judge if this was correct, Mr Hicks said solemnly: “Yes, sir.”
Mr Hicks’s father, Terry, said he believed his son had pleaded guilty as part of a bargain with prosecutors that would get him out of the Guantanamo prison.
“It’s a way to get home, and he’s told us he just wants to get home.
“He has been through five years of absolute hell,” he added. “I think anyone in that position, if they were offered anything, I think they’d take it.”
Mr Hicks, a convert to Islam, allegedly attended al-Qaida camps in Afghan-istan, conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. But he remained on the margins once the US invaded to oust the Taliban following the September 11 attacks.
He joined al-Qaida fighters hours before the front lines collapsed and was captured as he tried to flee, the US military said.
A panel of military tribunal members convened for the case must travel to Guantanamo to approve any sentence, a development that could come this week.
Morris Davis, chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo tribunals, said he would seek a sentence of about 20 years. He added that the five years Mr Hicks had spent at Guantanamo could be considered in the sentence.
