Life of David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay: Descriptive Essay

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Introduction:

David Hicks is a former Australian criminal who was detained by the United States of America’s military forces after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Due to his high-profile case, its many discrepancies and his lengthy incarceration without trial, his case has risen to prominence in Australian and American legal history and he has become a controversial figure in Australian politics.

Life in Adelaide:

David Hicks is a 157 cm Australian man that was born in Adelaide on August the 7th, 1975. His parents divorced at the age of 9. At school, David was placed in a class that was for “boys at risk”. His principal described him as one of “the most troublesome kids” he had ever come past. It’s alleged that David consistently experimented with drugs and alcohol throughout his schooling life and that his addiction to illicit substances led to his expulsion from Smithfield Plains High School when he was just 14. His father permitted him to stop going to school after he had been expelled.

For the rest of Hicks’ early life, he spent his time moving from state to state desperately looking for jobs. Hicks had no criminal record during this time but his ex-partner has alleged that David Hicks took part in criminal activity to survive and feed his family. 4 years after marrying his wife at the age of 17 and having 2 children during their marriage, Hicks separated with his wife in 1996 and moved to Japan so he could be a racehorse trainer. He was “devastated” by his separation, not being able to see his 2 children and described his new life in Japan as a “breath of fresh air”.

Radicalisation:

David Hicks considered himself as “searching for a purpose” in the late 1990s Hicks travelled to Albania in 1999 to join the Kosovo Liberation Army to learn military tactics and support those most vulnerable from the war Converted to Islam back in Australia A visit to Albania broadened his political perspective Hicks moved to Pakistan in November of1999 after being denied apart of the Australian defence force.

Hicks considered Pakistan to be a place where he belonged and he continued to attend training camps and military pursuits, whilst immersing himself in the Pakistan culture.

Hicks fought with the Pakistan army over the Kashmiri border although never recalls firing a bullet and being more member personnel(the support crew) – performing tasks such as protecting tanks whilst being on the frontlines Hicks moved to Afghanistan in December of 2000 to attend the Al-Farouq para-military training camp run by Al-Qaeda.

The Al-Farouq training camp focused on military combat not terroristic acts such as creating bombs.

During 2000-2001, Hicks wrote letters home to his family that he had strong links to Osama Bin Laden. Hicks claimed he had met and personally spoken to Bin Laden at least 20 times and described him as a “kind man” and that the main reason he was the world’s most wanted terrorist was because he “had enough money to act against the west”

Has recently claimed that he had only heard Bin Laden making speeches at the Al-Farouq camp. Bin Laden did make multiple visits to the Al-Farouq base before September 2001 and was reported to rouse the trainees with speeches.

Hicks was at the Al-Farouq base for over a year. This is likely to debunk Hicks’ claim of being “a common soldier” and greatly suggests he was of much more value to the higher ranks of the Taliban as a foreign national.

By now Hicks had spent 2 years in the Middle East and had been immersed in a society that felt a sense of belonging to a society, although it had a largely limited perspective.

Life at Guantanamo Bay:

By September of 2001, David Hicks had completed 4 military courses in Afghan training camps where it’s alleged that he learnt guerrilla and urban warfare tactics. On September 11, 2001, the 9/11 attacks occurred and the United States of America began its hunt down for the terrorists who set the infamous terrorist attack into action. 2 days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, David Hicks had travelled from Afghanistan to Pakistan. It’s alleged that David Hicks took this journey to meet up with his friends however David Hicks claims he travelled to Pakistan to renew his visa so he could get back home. After spending a few days in Pakistan David Hicks returned to Afghanistan. Hicks claims he returned to collect his belongings so he could travel back to Adelaide however multiple sources claim that he returned to Afghanistan to fight with Al- Qaeda and Taliban forces again.

It is alleged that David Hicks returned to Afghanistan, he contacted a high-ranking Al-Qaeda member called Saif al Adel who armed David Hicks “with an AK-47 automatic rifle, ammunition, and grenades to fight” against the U.S., British, Canadian, Australian, Afghan coalition forces. It is also alleged that Saif al Adel assigned David Hicks a position in the Taliban that included guarding Taliban tanks and military vehicles outside an Afghan airport.

On December 9, 2001, David Hicks was captured along with Taliban force by the Northern Alliance, which was the military force in Afghanistan at the time. The Northern Alliance sold David Hicks to the U.S. Army for 5000 American dollars. The United States government then announced it would be sending terrorists it had captured, such as David Hicks to Guantanamo Bay. On January 11, 2002, David Hick was transferred to Guantanamo Bay prison along with other alleged terrorist criminals. He was part of a group of prisoners which became the first of many alleged terrorists to be sent to Guantanamo Bay. On January 14, 2002, Attorney-general, Daryl Williams claimed that David Hicks was one of the world’s most dangerous people.

Guantanamo Bay Prison is a naval base occupied by US forces in Cuba. It has been open since 1903 and is still open and holding inmates today. It began holding alleged terrorist prisoners after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has held 700 inmates so far. Many of its inmates have and are being held having not been found guilty of the crimes they have been charged with. In June of 2003, it held 684 inmates and in May of last year, it held 40 inmates. 9 inmates have died while being in custody of Guantanamo Bay and the U.S. government spends nearly 500 million American dollars each year to keep it running.

David Hicks spent 5 and a half years in Guantanamo Bay. After being in Guantanamo Bay for a couple of months, he sent an affidavit, which is a statement sworn by an oath or testimony, on August 5th of 2004 to the International Red Cross Committee. He claimed that during interviews and interrogations by the U.S. military, Australian Federal Police and ASIO, “he was beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed, forced to take unidentified medication, sedated by injection without consent, struck while under sedation, regularly forced to run in leg shackles causing ankle injury, deprived of sleep ‘as a matter of policy, sexually assaulted, witness to use of attack dogs to brutalise and injure detainees”, “tortured via anal examination”, beaten for as long as eight hours repeatedly and, prohibited from leaving his cell or exercising, just to name a few. David Hicks claims the torture he received has had life-changing effects and believes that it is impossible to ever fully recover from torture of such a malicious kind.

Trial:

The trial of David Hicks was before a US military commission, on the 30th of March 2007 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Before the trial, it had been acknowledged that Hicks had not broken any Australian, American, Afghan or international laws for which he could be tried in a court Military commissions were initiated by the US on the 13th of November 2001, following the 9/11 attacks to target foreign nationals, such as Hicks, who were suspected of crimes relating to 9/11 and Al-Qaeda.

Mid 2006 the US supreme court ruled military commissions unconstitutional, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 came into effect on the 17th of October 2006 and allowed military trials to proceed.

Hicks pleaded guilty to “providing material support for terrorism” and was later sentenced to 60 more days in Guantanamo Bay prison and a shortened sentence of 9 months in Australia due to his guilty plea.

The crimes Hicks had been convicted of were legislated two months before the trial meaning that none of the actions Hicks undertook from 1999-2001 were illegal.

The US military commission recognised that Hicks did not commit any form of terrorism but had been “ associated and had trained with Al-Qaeda before 9/11 and was involved in conflict against the United States.

In total, David Hicks had been incarcerated in prisons in Guantanamo and Australia for just over 6 years.

The whole Hicks process and trial was very controversial, as many people considered it unjust to try someone for a crime which did not exist when it was undertaken.

Life at Yatala Prison:

On May 20, 2007, David Hicks was transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide via a plane flight that is estimated to have cost the Australian government at least $500,000. In Yatala prison, he was placed in solitary confinement in G Division, the highest-security ward in all of South Australia. Prison wards are sections of prisons that are separated from the rest of the prison population and are used to detain prisoners with special circumstances.

After 9 months, David Hicks was released from Yatala prison on the 27th of December, 2007. It has been alleged that the Howard government purposely delayed the release of Hicks until after the 2007 election to prevent him from speaking up against his treatment he received whilst not being supported by the Howard government. When Hicks was released from custody, his freedom was limited as he was given a control order by the Australian Federal Police, meaning many of his liberties would be restricted. For example, while being on the control order, David Hicks could not leave the country or use a sim card that had not first been examined and approved by the Federal police and he had to report back to a police station at least 3 times a week. When December arrived in 2008, the control order expired and was not renewed by Australian Federal Police, from then on David Hicks is regarded as a free man.

Life as a free man:

In 2009, Hicks married a human rights activist from the University of Sydney who ironically accused Hicks of assaulting her in 2017. She later dropped this case. On October 16 of 2010, David Hicks released his autobiography, detailing key events in his life and his time at Guantanamo Bay. Exactly 2 years later, on October 16th of 2012, the U.S. overturned the conviction of Salim Hamdam, who was the driver of Osama Bin Laden. This was the 1st step in getting Hicks’ conviction thrown out. In November of 2013, David Hicks’ lawyers appealed his conviction of terrorism and later on February 19 of 2015, his conviction was overturned by the US military court at Guantanamo Bay.

David Hicks has spoken out multiple against the Australian and American Governments.

To this day, it’s still unclear whether David Hicks was actually a threat to Australian society. Australian and American politicians truly hated him, seeing him as a definite threat to society while many Australians saw him as just a man that had committed no actual crimes and was an underdog fighting up against a military superpower. However, there isn’t enough evidence to prove that David Hicks committed any terrorist acts. The long and tedious case of David Hicks exposed the public to the issue of how criminals could be held for years without being convicted of any charges and how countries could create new laws just to keep people who they want to be locked up, locked up. David Hicks continues to claim that he did not commit any terrorist actions and that if he did, he did them unknowingly.

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