Former Guantanamo Bay detainee freed

An Australian former Guantanamo Bay inmate today became a free man for the first time in seven years when the final restrictions stemming from terrorism allegations ended.

David Hicks, a 33-year-old ex-kangaroo skinner and Outback cowboy, spent more than five years in US custody at the military detention centre in Cuba before striking a plea deal that returned him home to Australia to serve a nine-month sentence.