David Hicks

Former detainee

• Born: August 7, 1975
• Place of Birth: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Significance: David Hicks is an Australian who converted to Islam and fought with al-Qaeda forces. He spent five years at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and was convicted of assisting a terrorist organization. However, in 2015, the conviction was overturned.

Background

David Hicks was born on August 7, 1975, in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, to Terry and Susan Hicks. His parents divorced when he was a child. As a teen, Hicks used drugs and alcohol and was expelled from school. He decided not to go back to school and worked several odd jobs.

After a failed relationship in the late 1990s, Hicks moved to Japan to train racehorses. While there, he decided to plan a trip to see more parts of the world. Through his research, he discovered the religion of Islam. He cast aside his travel plans and scoured the Internet for any information he could find about the religion. His searches led him to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was a militant organization of Albanians who wanted to take control of Kosovo from the Serbs and Yugoslavs. In 1999 Hicks traveled to Albania to join the KLA and fight during the Kosovo War (1998–1999). He spent several weeks at training camps and then returned to Australia.

While back home, Hicks converted to Islam. Within three months, he was going by the Muslim name Muhammed Dawood. He then traveled to Pakistan in November of 1999. There, he joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was an Islamic terrorist group. Hicks maintained that he was unaware that the group was linked to terrorist activity.

Hicks remained in touch with his family. He called his father and told him that he was helping patrol the border of Kashmir, a disputed area claimed by both Pakistan and India. He stayed in Pakistan for several years. In 2001 he attended Islamist militant training camps in Afghanistan. The terrorist group al-Qaeda headed these trainings. Hicks said that he did not know what al-Qaeda was at the time. He also said that he participated in surveillance of targets in Kabul such as the American embassy. He finished his training in September of 2001 and then said he was going to return to Australia. Instead, he traveled to Kandahar, Afghanistan. He said that he needed to obtain his passport and other items for his trip home.

However, authorities believed that Hicks returned to his al-Qaeda posts. He called his father in November of 2001 and told him he was in Kandahar. He said that he was going to travel to Kabul to help defend it against the Afghan Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban force. A few weeks later, the Northern Alliance captured Hicks and handed him over to the US military on December 9, 2001.

Sent to Guantanamo Bay

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States enacted several laws concerning suspected terrorists and those who helped them. The US government decided that prisoners suspected of working with al-Qaeda or the Taliban would be sent to a detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Hicks arrived at Guantanamo Bay in January of 2002. He waited more than two years before he was charged with any crime. During this time, he denounced his Islam faith. He alleged that military personnel physically abused him, did not allow him to sleep, and tortured him in other ways. In a letter that he wrote to his family in 2004, Hicks told his parents that he was confined alone for long periods. He said the solitary confinement affected his mental state and made him feel confused and suffer from mood swings.

Hicks was charged with conspiracy, attempted murder, and aiding the enemy in June 2004. He was supposed to be tried by military tribunals. However, another three years passed without a trial. During this time, his father sought public support to have Hicks repatriated to Australia. He asked the Australian government to interfere in the case for the sake of his son.

The charges against Hicks were eventually dropped because the US Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals were unlawful. Hicks remained at Guantanamo. In February of 2007, Hicks was charged with attempted murder and providing material support for terrorism. He became the first crime suspect to appear before the military commissions in March of 2007. The murder charge was dropped, and Hicks negotiated a deal in exchange for a guilty plea for providing material support to a terror group. He also reversed his allegations that US military members abused him while he was at Guantanamo.

A judge sentenced him to seven years in prison but suspended six years and three months of the sentence, allowing Hicks to serve only nine months in a prison in Australia as part of the plea deal. He entered the Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide and was released in December of 2007. He was not allowed to speak to the media for one year following his release.

After the year was up, Hicks told the media that he did not know what al-Qaeda was and did not realize he was involved with a terrorist group. He spoke out about how he was tortured while at Guantanamo Bay. He said that he plead guilty to helping terrorist groups and dropped the abuse allegations as a way to get out of Guantanamo.

Hicks's lawyer later filed an appeal to overturn his conviction since supporting terrorism was not considered a crime at the time of his alleged activities. These occurred before September 2001, after which time the law was established. In 2015 a US military appeals court overturned his conviction.

In 2017, Hicks was charged in an Australian court with assaulting his partner. However, the case was dropped.

Impact

Hicks's case was important because it established that a person could not be tried for breaking a law for an action that was not legally considered a crime at the time. Hicks published his autobiography, Guantanamo: My Journey, in October 2010. In it, he talked extensively about the abuse he suffered at Guantanamo Bay but barely mentioned his al-Qaeda training.

Personal Life

Hicks began a relationship with Jodie Sparrow when he was seventeen years old. She became his common-law wife, and they had two children, Bonnie and Terry. The couple broke up in 1996. Hicks married Aloysia Brooks, a human rights activist, in 2009. The two later split.

Bibliography

Bonner, Raymond. "The Case against Guantanamo Detainee David Hicks." Pacific Standard, 5 Feb. 2015, psmag.com/news/the-case-against-guantanamo-detainee-david-hicks. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Court Throws Out Conviction of Former Guantanamo Detainee David Hicks." CBS News, 18 Feb. 2015, www.cbsnews.com/news/court-throws-out-conviction-of-former-guantanamo-detainee-david-hicks. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

"David Hicks: 'Australian Taleban.'" BBC News¸ 20 May 2007, news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3044386.stm. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

"David Hicks: Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee, Foreign Fighter, Author." ABC, 22 Jan. 2015, www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-23/david-hicks-profile/6032056. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"David Hicks: US Government Agrees Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee Is Innocent, Lawyer Says." ABC, 22 Jan. 2015, www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-23/former-guantanamo-bay-detainee-david-hicks-innocent/6039806. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

Ford, Dana. "Court Tosses Terrorism Conviction of Former Guantanamo Detainee." CNN, 19 Feb. 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/02/18/us/david-hicks-conviction-vacated/index.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Wright, Shane. "Howard Government Moved Quickly on Claims Against David Hicks." The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 Jan. 2017, www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/howard-government-moved-quickly-on-claims-against-david-hicks-20221228-p5c94y.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.