Shocking image of detained Hicks
A SHOCKING 20-year-old image has emerged of Australian detainee David Hicks on the first day of prison operations at Guantanamo Bay.
The photo, published by the New York Times, shows Mr Hicks being led down a ramp by two soldiers with his face covered and hands chained.
Mr Hicks and other prisoners at the controversial US-run detention camp are seen wearing goggles, with duct tape over the lenses, and earmuffs to prevent them from seeing or perceiving their surroundings.
The paper said this was a “more professional alternative to black hoods” so detainees were “restrained and deprived of their sensory information”.
Mr Hicks, born in Adelaide, was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 after attending al-Qa’ida training camps and meeting Osama bin Laden. He spent the next 5½ years in Guantanamo Bay, where he experienced “physical and psychological torture”.
Mr Hicks pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism in 2007 and was transferred to Australia to serve the remaining nine months of a suspended seven-year sentence.
But in 2015 the conviction was unanimously struck down by the US Court of Military Commission Review.