Australia
Australian offered plea bargain at Guantanamo
By Jane Sutton
Mar 26, 2007, 15:04

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Australian David Hicks has grown his hair to chest-length so he can use it to cover his eyes from the lights that shine in his Guantanamo prison cell all night, one of his lawyers said.

Hicks believes he will be convicted at his U.S. military war crimes tribunal at the base in southeast Cuba and he has not ruled out a guilty plea if it would get him home sooner, Australian attorney David McLeod told reporters.


"He doesn't have a lot of confidence in the process," McLeod said.

Hicks, 31, is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday at 5:00 p.m. British time on charges of providing material support for terrorism by fighting with al Qaeda in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

He was the first Guantanamo prisoner charged in the newly revised military tribunals created by the U.S. Congress after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier version of the war-crimes court that U.S. President George W. Bush authorized to try foreign captives on terrorism charges.

McLeod and Hicks' military lawyers met with him on Sunday and described him as eager to see his father and sister, who are due on Monday for the hearing.

In addition to his flowing locks, the former farm hand and alleged al Qaeda fighter had a full, bushy beard because "there's been an issue about access to razors," McLeod said

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