David Hicks will be home within two months and has agreed to testify against other terrorist suspects. He was formally convicted last night of providing material support to terrorism and will receive a maximum of seven years in jail as part of a plea deal agreed this week. The sentence is expected to be handed down this weekend.Hicks admitted he had trained with al-Qaeda, fought with the Taliban and that a friend of his believed he had approved of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The judge revealed that the plea bargain included a provision that he would get no credit for the five years he has already served in Guantanamo Bay and that had agreed not to sue the US for any illegal treatment he had received. The plea bargain included a ban on him speaking to the media for one year, and agreement that if he made any money from selling his story the money would go to the Australian Government. He also agreed that he had "never been illegally treated by any persons in the control or custody of the United States".
Hicks, 31, entered the military commission hearing room a different man to the one who wore prison scrubs and long hair on Monday. He wore a blue suit, purple-spotted tie and white shirt. His hair was cut short and neat, parted on the right side. He looked as if he was applying for a job. The judge, Colonel Ralph Kohlman said, "Good morning Mr Hicks." He sat next to his lawyer, Major Michael Mori, quietly answering the judge's questions about his understanding of the terrorism charge to which he was pleading guilty.
Anybody have a tissue? I just had an anticlimax.
Earlier yesterday, the chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, said that if Hicks's guilty plea was not genuine and was being offered only to escape Guantanamo Bay, that would be perjury. Hicks, who is said to have renounced Islam while in prison, took the oath before giving an explanation of behaviour, swearing to tell the truth "so help me God".
He also admitted attending a second training course in April 2001 on guerilla warfare and mountain tactics. It was during this course that he met Osama bin Laden. When bin Laden arrived at the camp, the recruits had their weapons taken away and were lined up when he spoke to them. Hicks admitted that he had asked bin Laden why al-Qaeda's training manuals were not in English. He also admitted attending a third training course in June 2001 on urban fighting, which included sniper training and techniques on kidnapping and assassination. He admitted conducting surveillance of the former American embassy in Kabul.
Two days before the September 11 attacks, Hicks left Afghanistan, travelling to Pakistan. He saw the television coverage of the World Trade Centre attacks there. The next day, he returned to Afghanistan. He denied having any advance knowledge of those attacks. When the American bombing campaign in Afghanistan began on October 7, Hicks was at Kandahar's airport. On October 10, he went to guard a tank outside the airport, staying there for about a week. He went to the front lines in Konduz, but fled when they were overrun. Hicks had met Arab fighters who said they intended to fight to the death, but he decided to flee, using his Australian passport. He was captured while trying to flee.
Hicks's father, Terry, said earlier this week: " He's had five years of absolute hell. I think anyone in that position if they were offered anything they would take it."
The judge led him through his confession, which was largely as the prosecution had alleged for several years, other than omitting that he had been asked to be a martyr for al-Qaeda, or had met the American Taliban member John Walker Lindh, or the British shoe bomber, Richard Reid. Hicks said that in January 2001 he travelled to Afghanistan with the assistance of the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba to attend an al-Qaeda training camp. In Afghanistan, he travelled to Kandahar. He went to an eight-week training camp, where he learnt about weapons, land mines, explosives and tactics.