Guantanamo Detainee Hicks Feared US Interrogators Would Shoot Him
    Agence France-Presse

    Tuesday 03 April 2007

    Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks feared he would be shot unless he cooperated with US interrogators in Afghanistan, according to a sworn statement presented to a British court.

    In the affidavit, Hicks said he was slapped, kicked, punched and spat on after being arrested by coalition forces in the Central Asian country in 2001.

    Hicks also said that he had heard other detainees screaming in pain, had seen evidence of beatings on fellow prisoners and had had a shotgun trained on him during questioning.

    "I realised that if I did not cooperate with US interrogators, I might be shot," he said in the document handed to British authorities and obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

    The affidavit detailed the allegations of mistreatment as part of his unsuccessful bid to obtain British citizenship last year.

    Hicks said he was twice taken off a US warship, flown to an unknown location and physically abused by US personnel for a total of 16 hours. Two US investigations said that claim was unfounded.

    The 31-year-old, who spent more than five years in Guantanamo Bay without charge, last week pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism.

    As part of the plea bargain which will see him serve another nine months in an Australian jail, Hicks has agreed to withdraw all claims of mistreatment during his time at Guantanamo Bay.

    But in the affidavit he said he felt at risk of physical abuse and that he had seen one prisoner set upon by dogs and another have his head slammed into concrete until he was unconscious.

    In the document, Hicks said that by early 2003 he "felt that I had to ensure that whatever I did pleased the interrogators to keep from being physically abused, placed in isolation and remaining at Guantanamo for the rest of my life", the ABC reported late Monday.

    Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, said his claims were credible.

    "I know this kind of abuse happened," he told ABC. "I've talked to people who participated in it - CIA, military and contractor."

    Wilkerson said military officers had told him the interrogations at Guantanamo Bay had revealed "virtually nothing" of useful intelligence.

    "And that is just damning," he said.