http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/celebrity-hicks-back-in-lockup /2007/05/20/1179601217219.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 Celebrity Hicks back in lockup Convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks has arrived at the Adelaide prison where he is set to spend the next seven months after touching down in his home state this morning.
Eight years after he left his Adelaide home for the adventure of a lifetime in Pakistan, Hicks returned to Australia this morning a 31-year-old former Muslim with a bad back and receding hairline. Hicks, convicted of providing material support to a terrorist organisation, has spent more than five years at Guantanamo, one of the world's most oppressive prisons. InsideYatala Labour Prison, Hicks will enter G Division, where he will strip naked, get prison clothes and be put in a two-metre by four-metre cell. It is expected to he his home until his scheduled release on December 29. Hicks is expected to spend 23 hours a day inside his cell and will have little or no immediate contact with fellow prisoners, who include Adelaide's worst rapists, murders and Snowtown serial killers Robert Wagner and John Bunting. 'Relief' at homecoming Sydney man Mamdouh Habib, a fellow former Guantanamo detainee, has spoken of his relief that Hicks has returned toAustralia. Mr Habib said he hoped Hicks would soon have the chance to tell his story. "It's a big relief that David Hicks is home," Mr Habib said. "We can show who is right and who is wrong. Any question can be answered." The Government-chartered Gulfstream jet bringing Hicks from his prison in Guantanamo Bay touched down at Edinburgh RAAF base in Adelaide's outer suburbs at 9.50am (10.20am AEST). His plane approached the runway from the south at 9.45am and circled once before landing, then taxiied towards the hanger. There were few members of the public, other than media, there to witness the landing - just a handful of locals. A security guard with a dog patrolled the tarmac outside the plane. People started getting out of the aircraft about 10 minutes after it landed. Members of the flight crew, wearing flourescent yellow, started unloading luggage as a white van approached the plane. Bright orange jumpsuit A group of people then got off the aricraft. A figure in a bright orange jumpsuit - thought to be Hicks - was taken from the plane, escorted by officers in blue uniforms. Staff at the air force base said Hicks spent 30 minutes being processed by customs staff before departing for the prison. While a large media contingent gathered at the front gates to the base, the police escort gave them the slip through a back gate. theage.com.au followed the motorcade of eight marked police cars, two unmarked police cars and six motorcycles - and Hicks in a white van with blacked-out windows - on the 20km journey to the prison, travelling at 70kmh in a 90kmh zone. The motorcade arrived at Yatala Labour Prison at 10.45 (11.15am AEST), driving through the front gates without stopping. Few protesters A handful of protesters - including two people holding placards, one of which read "This is a travesty of justice" - stood outside the prison along with a big media contingent. Protester Steve Patroni said: "David Hicks is a political prisoner and it is just a complete human rights violation that our government can completely neglect one of its own citizens and leave him to rot in Guantanamo Bay." On board the plane with Hicks were Australian Federal Police agents, Hicks' Australian lawyer David McLeod, representatives of the Attorney General's department and two guards from Yatala. His trip home, which reportedly cost taxpayers about $500,000, was a brief, luxurious, interlude between high-security cells. Hicks flew in the comfort of leather seats and wasn't restrained during the 22-hour flight. The plane stopped to refuel at Tahiti about midnight. His father Terry - this morning returning to Adelaide from Sydney - had been told he would not be able to visit his son for several days. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/taxpayers-wear-high-cost-for-h icks-return/2007/05/20/1179601216233.html Taxpayers wear high cost for Hicks' return Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the cost of returning convicted terrorist supporter David Hicks to Australia could reach several hundred thousand dollars. Hicks is expected to touch down in Adelaide today on a charter flight from Guantanamo Bay, where was been imprisoned for five years before pleading guilty earlier this year to supporting a terrorist organisation. Mr Downer confirmed today Hicks' return was imminent. "It won't be all that far off now, I think I could reveal that," Mr Downer told the Seven Network. "The federal police have asked us not to make public the time of his arrival." Mr Downer said a charter flight was the only practical way to return Hicks, owing to security and logistical problems that meant he could not be returned on a commercial flight. The minister could not state the cost of flying Hicks back to Adelaide but said it was likely to be similar to the bill taxpayers incurred to repatriate Mamdouh Habib, a Sydney man released without charge from Guantanamo Bay in 2005. Flying Mr Habib back to Sydney on a charter flight cost taxpayers about $250,000. "If the Habib case is any guide, it could cost several hundred thousand dollars," Mr Downer said. "Insofar as Hicks is to be brought back to Australia, this is the only way we can reasonably bring him back. "There aren't any other particularly practical ways - you're just dealing with an enormous distance and we have to charter the plane to cover that distance." Returning Hicks on a series of commercial flights was not an option because of the complexities of gaining permission from authorities at each stopover location, which could include countries in central and South America, Mr Downer said. Mr Downer urged Australians to familiarise themselves with the case against Hicks. "This is somebody who was not just passing through Afghanistan on a backpacker's holiday and happened to meet someone from al-Qaeda and just said g'day to him," he said. "This is someone who was actively involved in al-Qaeda." Hicks had been fighting with Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba on the Kashmir border before joining al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, he said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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