Hicks to be Released: Update

David Hicks, the only person sentenced by the U.S. military commissions set up to try suspected terrorists, was scheduled to walk out of prison in Australia on Saturday morning, after serving nine months for having given support to a terrorist organization.^[1]

Hicks had been held at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for more than five years before his appearance in front of the military commission in March, when he pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain.^[2] He also agreed not to speak to the press for one year.^[3]

Though Hicks will be out of prison for the first time in more than six years, he can hardly be called a free man.^[4] The Australian government has imposed a "control order" on him. He is limited to one e-mail account, one mobile phone number and one fixed-line number, which must be registered with the police - presumably to make it easier for the police to monitor his calls.^[5] He is also under a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew, and must report to the police three times a week.^[6]

The strict conditions have surprised, and disappointed, many in Austrialia who thought that the center-left Labor government under Kevin Rudd, which ousted John Howard's center-right Liberal government in an election last month, would take a more pro-civil liberties line.^[7]

Australian intelligence and law enforcement officials have been divided over just how much of a terrorist Hicks is.^[8] Senior officials in the country's domestic intelligence agencies describe him as a committed terrorist; Law enforcement officials see him as a lost soul.^[9]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here. David Hicks case has been discussed here.

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^[1] Raymond Bonner, David Hicks, Australian convicted of supporting terrorism, to be freed, International Herald Tribune, December 28, 2007, available at http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8939347 (last visited December 28, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.