Hicks, David
| Name |
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| Birthname | David Matthew Hicks | ||||
| born on | 7 August 1975 | ||||
| Place | Elizabeth, Australia, 34s43, 138e40 | ||||
| Timezone | ACST h9e30 (is standard time) | ||||
| Data source |
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| Astrology data |   13°59' 
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Biography
Australian expatriate who attended Al Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, and met with Osama Bin Laden during 2001. He was then detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2002 until 2007.
As a Taliban member he took the name of Mohammed Dawood and was captured around 9 December 2001 by Northern Alliance fighters. On the morning of 17 December 2001, he was turned over to a U.S. military ship. The government said David Hicks, 26, trained with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and had been fighting with the Taliban against U.S.-led forces, which included Australian troops.
Hicks left Australia in mid-1999 to join Muslims in the Kosovo Liberation Army fighting against Serbia in Yugoslavia. After converting to Islam, he flew to Pakistan in late 1999, where he trained with the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group. He entered Afghanistan and trained with al-Qaida, the government said.
Hicks came from divorced parents and was a school drop-out at 14. He was body-conscious, a body-builder with steroids and some acquaintances spoke of drugs.
He lived as an itinerant adventurer, taking such jobs as a rodeo rider and jackaroo. He was a race-horse trainer in Japan for a while and ended up in a chicken processing plant. He had a relationship with a woman that produced two kids but it broke down about 1995. He has been described paradoxically as a gentle, caring, thinker and a battle-hardened, trained rebel fighter who bragged of his alleged kills. He developed an interest in the occult, a search for understanding in Christianity, Bible classes and, finally, a zeal for Islam.
He kept in contact with his parents and told them of his committed participation in armed Islamic conflicts. His dad said that "He's been a handful, a rebel, but not a trouble-maker . . . he's got a bit of hot blood running through his veins."
Australia lost 23 lives in the World Trade Center and 150 more were on the line with their military deployment in war-torn Afghanistan. Defense analysts believe thousands of foreign nationals answered the call to jihad and went to Afghanistan to join the Taliban when the war against terrorism began. Legal experts pondered whether Hicks had actually broken any Australian laws, but believed he could be charged under a law aimed at discouraging soldiers of fortune. Under the Foreign Incursions law, Australian citizens face prison sentences of up to 14 years for working as mercenaries.
On 20 May 2007, Hicks arrived at RAAF Base Edinburgh in Adelaide, South Australia on a chartered flight reported to have cost the Australian government up to A$500,000. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock asserted that this arrangement was the consequence of US restrictions on the transit of Hicks through US airspace or territory preventing the use of less expensive commercial flights. Hicks was taken to Adelaide's Yatala Labour Prison where he was kept in solitary confinement in the state's highest-security ward, G Division.
Hicks was released on 29 December 2007 and placed under a control order obtained by the AFP earlier that month. The order required Hicks to not leave Australia, to report to a police station three times a week, and to use only an AFP-approved mobile phone SIM card. On 19 February 2008 he was given special dispensation by federal magistrate Warren Donald to leave South Australia. On 20 February 2008, Hicks moved to Abbotsford, New South Wales. A curfew between 1:00 am and 5:00 am was imposed. Hicks' control order expired in December 2008 and the AFP did not renew it.
In October 2012, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that the charge under which Hicks had been convicted was invalid, because the law did not exist at the time of the alleged offence, and it could not be applied retrospectively.
On 16 October 2010, Random House Australia published an autobiography of Hicks, entitled Guantanamo: My Journey.
On 23 July 2012, the Director of Public Prosecutions announced that the case against Hicks had been dropped, as documentary evidence such as Hicks' guilty plea and other admissions may not be admissible in court due to the circumstances in which they were obtained.
Events
- Social : Joined group 1999 (Joined Muslims in Kosovo army)
- Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released 16 October 2010 (Autobiography, "Guantanamo: My Journey")
chart Placidus Equal_H.
Source Notes
Sy Scholfield quotes his birth announcement in The Advertiser (Adelaide), 12 August 1975, p. 38: "HICKS (nee King) -- Sue and Terry are thrilled to announce the birth of a son (David Matthew), on August 7, 1975, at Lyell McEwin Hospital, Elizabeth." Date and place of birth originally from Little Dave, Big Trouble by Peter Lalor & Anna Cock, Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 15 December 2001, pp 25+30.
Categories
- Lifestyle : Home : Expatriate
- Personal : Religion/Spirituality : Fundamentalist/ Evangelical (Taliban)
- Vocation : Writers : Autobiographer ("Guantanamo: My Journey")
