SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - David Hicks, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to stand trial for terrorism, will not fight strict monitoring conditions likely to be imposed on his release from an Australian jail later this year, his lawyer said Monday.
Hicks' return to Australia has prompted debate about how he will be treated after his release, with one possibility being a control order restricting his movement, requiring him to report to authorities, and other strict monitoring measures.
Hicks' Australian lawyer David McLeod said his client would not oppose such an order. ``He doesn't want to be seen as someone who is bucking the system or being difficult. He is extremely grateful to everybody who has secured his return to Australia and he doesn't want to upset that,'' McLeod told Seven Network television.
| Just wait til it's time and see what he says then. |
Hicks is due to be released Dec. 29. He has not committed a crime under Australian law, but national police could request a control order using terrorism laws introduced since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. Attorney General Philip Ruddock declined to comment on security arrangements for Hicks, saying only ``public safety is the primary concern.''
McLeod said Hicks, a Muslim convert who left Australia in 1999 and joined fighters in Kosovo and Kashmir before going to Afghanistan, was overjoyed to be back in Australia. Hicks had ``a lot of regrets'' and accepts he was ``misguided,'' he said. ``He knows he's got the job ahead of him to prove he's not the monster he's made out to be,'' McLeod said.
| And we're supposed to buy that. |
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