Hicks' father hails suspended Guantanamo sentence

Sydney, Mar 31: The father of convicted terrorist David Hicks, who is to be sent back to Australia and spend nine months in jail, said today he was relieved his son would serve out his sentence in his homeland.

''The bottom line of all this is that at least he's back home.

He's out of that hell hole,'' Terry Hicks told local media.

Hicks, 31, who has spent five years at Guantanamo Bay, was sentenced by a US military commission yesterday to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to helping al Qaeda fight American troops and their allies during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

However, the commission suspended six years and three month of the sentence, meaning Hicks will serve just nine months in an Australian prison.

Hicks must arrive in Australia before May 29.

Hicks' father, who has spearheaded a campaign to have his son returned to Australia, said the sentence was better than it could have been, but his son's case was never properly tested in court.

''It's a real shame David had to go through this way to get released when he should have had the Australian government standing up for Australia's citizens' rights,'' he told Australian Associated Press.

Terry Hicks said his son had been ''through hell'' and should never have been made to endure the conditions at Guantanamo Bay.

''The Americans made David sign a paper to say he was never abused ... when we knew he has been, David told us,'' he said.

Hicks was the first of up to 80 Guantanamo Bay prisoners to face a newly constituted Military Commission trial, which the US Congress endorsed after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier version of the military tribunals.

Before the sentence was delivered, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Canberra would support whatever sentence was handed down.

''If any Australian gets involved in terrorist activity, they get no sympathy from us,'' he told local radio.

Australia, a close US ally with forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, had refused to ask for Hicks to be returned home because he could not have been charged with any offence under its laws.

But conservative Prime Minister John Howard, facing a tough election later this year and under growing public pressure to bring Hicks back, complained to Washington about the long delay in putting the Australian on trial.

Reuters