David Hicks - Torture Allegations

Torture Allegations

In an affidavit, dated 5 August 2004 and released on 10 December 2004, Hicks alleged mistreatment by U.S. forces, included being:

• beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed
• forced to take unidentified medication
• sedated by injection without consent
• struck while under sedation
• regularly forced to run in leg shackles causing ankle injury
• deprived of sleep "as a matter of policy"
• sexual assault
• witness to use of attack dogs to brutalise and injure detainees.

He also said he met with US military investigators conducting a probe into detainee abuse in Afghanistan and had told the International Red Cross on earlier occasions that he had been mistreated. Hicks told his family in a 2004 visit to Guantanamo Bay that he had been anally assaulted during interrogation by the U.S. in Afghanistan while he was hooded and restrained. Hicks' father claimed; "He said he was anally penetrated a number of times, they put a bag over his head, he wasn't expecting it and didn't know what it was. It was quite brutal." In a Four Corners interview, Terry Hicks discussed these "allegations of physical and sexual abuse of his son by American soldiers".

Hicks claims to have found conditions at the camps in the latter years to be equally trying. According to conversations with his father, Hicks said he had been abused by both Northern Alliance and US soldiers. In response, the Australian government announced its acceptance of U.S. assurances that David Hicks had been treated in accordance with international law. In March 2006, camp authorities moved all ten of the Guantanamo detainees who faced charges into solitary confinement. This was described as a routine measure because of the impending attendance of the detainees at their respective tribunals. However, Hicks remained in solitary confinement, for seven weeks after the US Supreme Court's confirmed a ruling that the commissions were unconstitutional, which was reported to have "deteriorated his condition".

Hicks was a well-behaved detainee, but he was in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. The window in his cell was internal, facing onto a corridor. Hicks claimed to have declined a visit from Australian Consular officials because he had been punished for speaking candidly with consular officials about the conditions of his detention on previous visits. Hicks was talking about suicidal impulses during his periods in isolation at Camp Echo, "He often talked about wanting to smash his head ... against the metal of his cage and just end it all."