Former Guantanamo prisoner, David Hicks, who is returning to Australia to serve 9 months before being released, said that he feared his U.S. interrogators would shoot him if he didn't cooperate with them. He also said he was kicked and punched and that on two occasions he was taken off of a U.S. warship and flown to another location where he was abused by U.S. personnel. U.S. investigations haven't substantiated these claims, but Colin Powell's former chief of staff said in an Australian Associated Press article that such internal investigations aren't to be trusted.
In his plea agreement with the U.S., Hicks agreed not to speak with the media or claim any mistreatment that he received while imprisoned, but allegations about his abuse appeared anyway in an affidavit he filed earlier in a British court. Hicks had filed the affidavit in a bid to seek British citizenship. A number of Guantanamo prisoners have sought to obtain UK citizenship out of the belief that the UK would fight for their release more than their birth countries would.
Hicks was sentenced to seven years but all but nine months of that has been suspended. The plea agreement that Hicks signed stated that, "I have never been illegally treated by any person or persons while in the custody of the United States" and that "I agree that this agreement puts to rest any claims of mistreatment by the United States."
But his Australian lawyer seemed to contradict that statement in comments made to the Australian media.
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