Hicks vreesde hij zijn ontsproten: beëdigde verklaring

De vroegere medebewoner David Hicks van de Baai van Guantanamo vreesde hij als hij niet met de ondervragers samenwerkte van de V.S. zijn ontsproten, zegt hij in een beëdigde verklaring voor zijn Engelse rechtszaak.
Hicks, die vijf jaar militaire gevangenis in van de V.S. de' bij de Baai van Guantanamo heeft doorgebracht, Cuba, nadat hij in Afghanistan in eind 2001 werd gevangen, pleitte vorige week schuldig aan een last van het geven van materiële steun aan terroristen.

Under a plea deal negotiated between Hicks’ lawyers and the US military commission, he will be returned to Australia to serve nine months in an Adelaide prison before being set free.

He also agreed not to speak to the media for a year or allege he was mistreated while in detention.

But ABC television program Four Corners reported Hicks’ had recently signed an affidavit for an English court setting out ill treatment.

“I realised that if I did not cooperate with US interrogators, I might be shot,” the ABC quoted Hicks as saying.

In the affidavit Hicks also claims that he was slapped, kicked, punched and spat on in Afghanistan, the ABC reported.

He could hear other detainees screaming in pain, saw the marks of their beatings and had a shotgun trained on him during interrogation.

Hicks said in the affidavit that by early 2003, he “felt that I had to ensure that whatever I did pleased the interrogators to keep from being physically abused, placed in isolation and remaining at Guantanamo for the rest of my life”, the ABC reported.

He also detailed twice being taken off a US warship, flown to an unknown location and physically abused by US personnel for a total of 16 hours, although two US investigations have found that claim unsubstantiated.

The allegations formed part of an affidavit that Hicks signed in a bid to seek British citizenship in the hope that the UK government would lobby for his release from Guantanamo Bay.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkersin, former US secretary of state Colin Powell’s chief of staff, described the investigations into Hicks’ and similar abuse claims as “a farce”.

“I know this kind of abuse happened,” he told the ABC.

“I’ve talked to people who participated in it - CIA, military and contractor.”

Asked about Hicks’ plea bargain agreement that he had never been illegally treated while in US custody, his civilian lawyer Joshua Dratel said it had to be taken “at face value”.

“That’s all I can say,” he told the ABC.

“It’s in the agreement, and he has - he has made that statement in the agreement.”

Meanwhile, Colonel Wilkersin said respected military officers had told him the interrogations at Guantanamo had revealed “virtually nothing” in the way of useful intelligence.

“And that is just damning. If that ever comes out, that we really didn’t get very much meaningful intelligence from these people,” he told the ABC.

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