Psychologist: Gitmo detainee to be released is 'broken into pieces' David Edwards and Jason Rhyne

Published: Friday December 28, 2007



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Print This Email This The first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be convicted by an American military tribunal will be released from prison on Saturday -- but harsh treatment in US custody leave him ill-prepared to readjust to normal life, a psychologist says. Australian-born David Hicks, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, plead guilty earlier this year to charges of providing material support for al- Qaeda terrorists. As part of his plea deal, Hicks was transferred to Australia to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Appearing in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Monash University psychology professor James Ogloff said that Guantanamo had left a broken Hicks to fend for himself in the free world. "In some very restrictive regimes, and Guantánamo Bay will fall into that category, the environments are actually designed to break people down," said Ogloff. "There's no long term goal of rehabilitating people or having them return to the community. So the issues that the individual faces is, in fact, being broken into pieces and having to really be put back together." During his time at Guantanamo, Hicks alleges that he was beaten, sedated and forced to take unidentified medication, among other abuses. Although Ogloff had never personally assessed Hicks, he described conditions typical of prisoners kept for prolonged periods in solitary confinement. "The become very anxious and nervous," he said. "The vast majority of people develop headaches, have problems sleeping, become angry and irritable, have emotional mood swings, high degrees of depression." The stigma of his conviction will also affect his rehabilitation, said the psychologist. "The infamy now that Mr. Hicks feels," said Ogloff, "will in fact exacerbate the problems he's experienced and make it all the more difficult for him to return to any semblance of a normal life in the community." Australian Broadcasting Corporation security correspondent Leigh Sales said there were still unanswered questions about the depth of Hicks' involvement with supporting terrorism. "There's a few question marks over what he was actually doing during that post September 11 period," said Sales. "But the basic facts are that David Hicks did spend time training with al-Qaeda and he was in Afghanistan with the Taliban after September 11...Was he a true believer? Was he someone that would have actually committed an act of terrorism? Or was he, as his lawyers and father claim, just a guy looking for adventure?"

This video is from Australia Broadcasting Company's The 7.30 Report, broadcast on December 27, 2007.









