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Govt trying to gag me: Terry
Hicks
AAP
Monday April 2, 2007
Terry Hicks, the father of confessed terrorist David Hicks, says
the Australian government is trying to gag him from talking about
his son's five years at Guantanamo Bay.
Terry Hicks says the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has
written to him outlining a 12-month gag order issued to his son
as part of his plea bargain, during which David Hicks cannot be
interviewed, write a book or make a film about his time as an enemy
combatant.
But the letter also detailed the restrictions on what the Hicks
family could reveal about their conversations with David, Terry
Hicks told News Limited newspapers.
"This is Big Brother, and because the Americans and the Australian
government coalesce on David's charges, at this point in time we're
ruled by them," Mr Hicks told News Limited from his Adelaide
workplace.
"If David tells us something, we can't pass it on. But I could
still talk about the signing of his charges, things like he hasn't
been abused."
A DFAT spokesman "adamantly and vehemently" denied Mr
Hicks's claims.
"We have not written to Terry Hicks since the verdict,"
the spokesman said.
"We communicated via email to his sister and provided two
publicly available documents."
He said there was a one-line email written to David Hicks's sister
Stephanie on March 31 providing copies from the US government of
David Hicks's pre-trial agreement and the statement of facts tendered
in the military commission.
"That's the only communication we've had and that wasn't even
with Mr Terry Hicks - so the whole story is just not true."
When asked if Terry Hicks had been gagged by the Australian government,
the spokesman said: "Not by us."
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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