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Australian Terror Suspect: Conditions Getting Worse at GuantanamoBay
Meraiah Foley
Associated Press
July 7, 2006
SYDNEY , Australia (AP) - An Australian terror suspect jailed at GuantanamoBay told relatives Friday that conditions there have worsened and that he wasn't told of a landmark U.S. court ruling that canceled his proposed military trial, his lawyer said.
David Hicks, 31, sounded "very, very depressed" during the conversation -- only the fourth with his family he has been allowed since his arrival at the U.S. military enclave in Cuba in early 2002, said his lawyer, David McLeod, who sat in on the two-hour call.
Hicks was captured in Afghanistan, where he was allegedly training with the Taliban.
He told his family that the guards at the prison had become "very tough" since three inmates apparently killed themselves last month and that he thought the surviving detainees were being punished for the suicides, McLeod told The Associated Press by telephone.
McLeod said Hicks was not suicidal, but that he said he could understand why the others killed themselves.
"We're being pushed, pushed, pushed all the time -- don't be surprised if things happen," McLeod quoted Hicks as saying, apparently warning there could be more suicide attempts at the facility.
Hicks said conditions at the prison had worsened significantly over the past several months and that he was being kept in solitary confinement inside a concrete cell for up to 24 hours a day.
He said all the furniture has been removed from his cell, and that he was forced to sleep on the floor until he guards gave him a centimeter-thick (half-inch-thick) mattress about two weeks ago.
"He has to lie on the floor, the air conditioning is kept on full, he has very few clothes, and he shivers lying on the floor," said McLeod, reading from the notes he took during the phone call.
McLeod said Hicks was allowed to keep one book for religious purposes, and that he had selected a science book that met with prison requirements.
"All his legal books and notes have been taken away from him. All his school books and school notes have been taken away from him. All his letters and cards have been taken away from him and he's not receiving any," the lawyer said. "He has no contact at all with the outside world."
Apart from his book and mattress, McLeod said Hicks is allowed to keep only his toothbrush and toothpaste inside the cell, and must ask for toilet paper as he needs it.
Though he has denied the charges, Hicks was one of 10 prisoners selected to face a U.S. military commission on charges of terrorist conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court last week declared the tribunals illegal because they violate U.S. military law and international standards for dealing with people captured in armed conflicts.
"He wasn't aware of the U.S. Supreme Court decision," McLeod said, and that Hicks gave little reaction to the news.
He said Hicks was also unaware of a British High Court decision to grant him British citizenship on the grounds that his mother was born in London.
Hicks is due to meet with his Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Maj. Michael Mori, at the camp later this week, McLeod said.
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