Guantanamo Bay terror convict to walk free in Australia

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Convicted terror supporter David Hicks will walk free Saturday after being held captive in Guantanamo Bay and Australia for nearly seven years, though the Australian government has imposed strict controls on his movements. Hicks became the first person convicted at a US war-crimes trial since World War II when he pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al-Qaida. The former Outback cowboy was captured in December 2001 by the US-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, where he had been fighting with the Taliban. A month later, he was sent to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he spent more than five years without trial. A US military tribunal sentenced Hicks - a Muslim convert who has since renounced the faith - to seven years in prison, with all but nine months being suspended, after he confessed to aiding al-Qaida during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following September 11, 2001.