Hicks gets nine months
In the first conviction by the controversial Guantanamo military tribunals and the first conviction in a US war crimes trial since World War II, a panel of military officers had recommended a maximum sentence of seven years.
But judge Colonel Ralph Kohlmann revealed that a plea deal for Hicks required that "any portion of a sentence in excess of nine months" be suspended.
In exchange for promising to keep his mouth shut and not bring any charges against the US, he gets a trivial sentence and gets to go home. Which probably explains the sudden change of behavior on his part, from fighting all the way to entering a guilty plea.
I suspect they offered him a sweat deal because the Australian government has been leaning on the US to do something with Hicks. And trying to bring a case against him had major problems because of the weak evidence, plus the risk of evidence of his torture in prison coming up.
So offering him this deal gets him off their hands, and insures a guilty entry in their books. Given the questionable nature of the process and Bush's political position, they are not going to want anything but guilty verdicts. So they will do everything they can to avoid bringing any cases but they ones they know they can win.
Jay
