Guantanamo tribunal sends Australian Hicks to jail for 9 months

A U.S. military tribunal accepted the guilty plea ofan Australian Guantanamo detaineeon a charge ofproviding material support for terrorism, after he agreed to a plea bargain that allows him to serve hisnine-month jail sentence in his home country.

David Hicks, 31,made the deal on Monday but wasn't formally convicted until his plea was accepted by U.S. Marine Corps Judge Col. Ralph Kohlmann on Friday at theGuantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

A panel of military officers recommended he serve seven more years in jail, butthe plea bargain, revealed after the tribunal accepted his guilty plea, capped his prison sentence at nine months.

Hicks, a Muslim convert from Adelaide, hasalready been imprisoned for five years at the U.S. naval base. Australian Prime Minister John Howard a loyal ally to U.S. President George W. Bush has been critical of the pace of military justice at Guantanamo and lobbied hard for Hicks to be returned to Australia.

Hicks is expected to leave for home within 60 days.

The 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner had earlier complained ofabuse while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo. As part of the plea bargain agreed between his lawyers and military prosecutors, he dropped all claims that he had been mistreated.

Gives details of anti-U.S. activities

Dressed in a grey suit with a dark tie and a short haircut, Hicks appeared stoic Friday as he gave a detailed accountof his activities in Afghanistan at thetribunal hearing.

He confirmed to the judge that he carried out surveillance work on the abandoned American Embassy in Kabul, participatedin al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 2001 and foughtin the front lines alongside al-Qaeda in the earlydays after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan.

Hicks, who had adopted the alias Abu Muslim Australia, testified that hedeserted al-Qaeda and Taliban forces within two hours, sold his weapon and attempted to flee to Pakistan.

He was not accused in any shootings of U.S. soldiers. He also denied having any early knowledge of al-Qaeda's plans to strike the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

It's the first verdict against a Guantanamo detainee since the United States set up the highly secure prison facility for al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects in Cuba inJanuary 2002.

For Hicks to be sentenced, the court had to be assured that he understood the implications of his guilty plea.Hicks told the judge that he believed the government could prove its case against him. Asked what evidence he had seen, he said: "Notes taken by interrogators from me."

Negotiations over the plea agreement slightly changed the original charge sheet listing activities for which Hicks had accepted responsibility.

The revised version notably dropped a reference to his meeting "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid in early 2001 at a training camp, and also removes the word "advanced" from a description of his terrorist training.

Canadian among nearly 400 detainees

The United States began shipping people accused of links to terrorists to Guantanamo in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks.

There are still nearly 400 people includinga Canadian teenager Omar Khadr imprisoned at Guantanamo. Few have been charged with a crime.

Lawyers for Khadr say he's unlikely to be allowed to serve any future jail sentence in Canada, in part because Ottawa has failed to lobby Washington publicly on his behalf.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme court threw out the government's plans to try Hicks and others by so-called military commissions, which placed great restrictions on defence teams and their access to prosecution evidence.

The U.S. Congress passed a law setting up the current tribunal system with slightly modified rules of evidence.

Civil and legal rights groups, and at least one of the Guantanamo defendants, have filed challenges of the new system in U.S. federal court.