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ACROSS THE GLOBE

Aussie judge slaps curfew on Guantánamo convict

(AP) -- Self-confessed al Qaeda foot soldier David Hicks remains a threat Australia's national security and has to report regularly to police and stay indoors from midnight to dawn after he is released from prison next week, a magistrate ruled Friday.

Hicks, 36, is the former kangaroo skinner turned soldier of fortune who pleaded guilty to providing material support for terror at a Guantánamo military commission.

Under the order, he will be subject to a midnight-to-dawn curfew upon his release from an Adelaide prison -- and have to report to police three times a week.

''I'm satisfied that coupled with the defendant's views expressed and his capability and training . . . that the defendant is a risk of taking part in a terrorist act,'' Federal Magistrate Warren Donald said.

The news broke Thursday night in the United States, Friday in Australia.

Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, sent to the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba, and held as an enemy combatant for more than five years before he secured a plea agreement.

His was the first ever guilty plea at President Bush's war court, called a military commission, and in exchange he was allowed to serve out a nine-month sentence in his native Australia -- and will be free by New Year's Eve.

The restrictions will last for one year.

Hicks is due to walk free on Dec. 29 from the Yatala high security prison in the southern city of Adelaide.

Hicks' lawyers and family said he did not object to being the subject of a control order, but that he believed the thrice weekly reporting condition was too onerous.

"David's intention all along upon release is to be a model citizen," David McLeod, Hicks' lawyer, told reporters outside the court. "He simply wants to get on with his life ... he will honor and abide by the decision."

Hicks' father, Terry, said the conditions would be tough.

"I think the three times a week to report to a police station is a little bit rough because, you know, if you've got a work situation or anything like that, it makes it fairly hard," Hicks said. "But he'll get around that somehow and we'll help him through it."

Hicks' control order is the second of its kind in Australia. The first was imposed last year on Melbourne man Jack Thomas, who authorities allege trained in al-Qaida terror camps in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001, and who is facing a retrial on terror-related charges.

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