SYDNEY (AFP) — An Australian court on Friday imposed tough restrictions on the upcoming release of former Guantanamo Bay terror detainee David Hicks whom police said once described Osama bin Laden as "lovely".
Australian Federal Police successfully applied for a control order which will limit the activities of the so-called "Aussie Taliban" when he is freed from an Adelaide jail on December 29.
Magistrate Warren Donald accepted police evidence that Hicks remained a terrorist risk, putting him on a midnight to 6:00 am curfew and ordering him to report to a police station three times a week.
"I'm satisfied that, coupled with the defendant's views expressed and his capability and training... the defendant is a risk of taking part in a terrorist act," Donald told the court.
The magistrate also banned Hicks from leaving Australia and imposed restrictions on him owning a mobile phone.
The 32-year-old Hicks spent more than five years in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 during the US-led invasion that followed the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Hicks admitted training with Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces under a plea bargain deal to end his extended incarceration without charge, which was becoming a political headache for the Australian government, a close US ally.
The deal meant he was freed from US military custody in May after pleading guilty to providing material support for terrorism and was allowed to complete a nine-month sentence in Australia.
The court was told Friday that Hicks received training in basic arms and combat techniques, guerrilla warfare and advanced marksmanship from Al-Qaeda.
Police cited letters Hicks sent to his family while training in Afghanistan.
In one, Hicks wrote: "By the way, I have met Osama bin Laden 20 times now, lovely brother, everything for the cause of Islam. The only reason the West calls him the most wanted Muslim is because he's got the money to take action."
Hicks also described himself as a "fit, young Muslim, ready to defend Islam," and in another letter wrote of the "poison" of the West, which he said was trying to crush Islam.
Reporting his comments, Sydney's Daily Telegraph ran the headline: "Just get a room boys," above pictures of Hicks and bin Laden.
Hicks' lawyers did not oppose the control order but insisted their client was not a threat to the community.
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