Guantanamo Bay ex-detainee faces trial for assaulting partner

Former Guantánamo Bay detainee and terror suspect David Hicks faced an Australian court on Tuesday over accusations he assaulted his partner, the media reported.

Hicks, 41, appeared at Elizabeth Magistrates Court in Adelaide, accused of assaulting his partner in Craigmore in September 2016, news website News.com.au reported.

"I'm here to see my dad. He works here," Hicks told reporters as he arrived at court wearing jeans and a grey, collared shirt.

Hicks was the first prisoner held at the US detention centre and convicted by a military court. He was detained at Guantanamo Bay for five years, said the report.

Adelaide-born Hicks was picked up in 2001 by US forces in Afghanistan, where he joined an Al Qaeda training camp, and was detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba until 2006.

He pleaded guilty in 2007 to providing material support for terrorism in a deal that allowed most of his seven-year sentence to be suspended and for him to return to Australia.

The terrorism conviction was appealed in 2013 and overturned by a US military court in 2014, bringing an end to the long legal saga.

Hicks married human rights activist Aloysia Brooks after his release from prison but the couple has since split and the victim of his assault is another woman, say reports.

--IANS

soni/vt