Guantanamo prisoner 'abused' by US troops

The father of Australian prisoner David Hicks said his son was physically abused by US troops before he arrived at Guantanamo Bay and has suffered mental abuse at the base.

Hicks pleaded not guilty to war crimes charges yesterday and had two short meetings with his family. It was the first time Terry Hicks had seen his son in five years.

“It was an emotional meeting,” said the teary-eyed father who travelled to Guantanamo Bay for his son’s preliminary hearing before a US military commission. Hicks’ trial is schduled for Jan. 10.

After asking about his two children and catching up on other family matters, Hicks confirmed reports in a dossier compiled by former British detainees who were released from Guantanamo that he was abused by US troops before he arrived to Guantanamo, his father said.

The British detainees claimed that Hicks was denied medical attention for a hernia and interrogated more frequently than many other detainees after his capture in Afghanistan.

The three men also claimed they suffered systematic brutality and were kept in open cages in the sweltering Cuban heat during their detention at the US military base in Guantanamo.

Terry Hicks said his son’s abuse at Guantanamo was mental, not physical.

The 29-year-old has been held at Guantanamo Bay for 2 1/2 years, about 10 months of which has been spent in a cell without any other prisoners since being charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, aiding the enemy and attempted murder for firing at US or coalition forces.

Some of the letters sent to his son over the course of his detention were censored by the US military and were missing key words like “love,” Hicks’ father said, suggesting the omissions were done on purpose as a form of mental abuse.

“It’s pretty hard on him,” Terry Hicks told reporters. “It was an emotional parting.”

Hicks is accused of going to Afghanistan to fight with Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime. It is thought he studied Islam in Pakistan before his alleged part in fighting in Afghanistan.

All 585 prisoners in Guantanamo are accused of links to the Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network headed by Osama bin Laden.