Confessed al-Qaida supporter David Hicks would not fight strict monitoring conditions likely to be imposed later this year after he serves out the remainder of his prison sentence in Australia, his lawyer said Monday.
Hicks, the first terrorist suspect to be convicted by a U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was returned to Australia on Sunday after a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors that ended more than five years detention without trial.
The 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al-Qaida, including attending terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Prosecutors said he sought to fight on the side of the Taliban against U.S.-backed forces who invaded the country after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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.
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. One other Australian who allegedly trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, Jack Thomas, is the subject of such an order.
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.
Government officials say Hicks could still be a threat, and that the public outrage at his long detention without trial in Cuba should not influence his treatment after he is released.
"Mr. Hicks has confessed to aiding and abetting al-Qaida and terrorist organizations," said Kevin Foley, the acting leader of South Australia state where Hicks is being held.
"David Hicks is a very foolish young man at best, an extremely dangerous man at worst," he said.
Hicks is serving his sentence in a 6-foot (1.8 meter)-wide, single-bed cell similar to the one he left in Cuba, in a cell block that includes murderers and rapists. He will allowed non-contact visits by family members, his telephone calls will be monitored and he will be allowed little contact with other inmates.
Hicks was captured in December 2001 in Afghanistan by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance, and became one of the first terrorist suspects to be transferred to the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
He was tried by a military tribunal under a system created by the U.S. military after the Supreme Court ruled the Pentagon's previous system was unconstitutional.
Lawyers for Guantanamo prisoners insist the new system is still unfair, and have asked the Supreme Court to intervene again and guarantee prisoners have the right to have their cases heard in U.S. courts.
The Pentagon said on Saturday the tribunals were legal under "the law of war," and that similar tribunals were used by the U.S. during World War II.
"Trials by military commission demonstrate that the United States is committed to holding dangerous terror suspects accountable for their actions," it said in a statement.
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