An appeals court on Wednesday struck down the terrorism conviction of Australian David Hicks, reversing one of the few successful prosecutions of a prisoner before a U.S. military court at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.
The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review vacated Hicks’ March 2007 guilty plea, the first conviction of a prisoner at the base in Cuba and still one of only a handful.
“We had been waiting for this decision for years,” Hicks said at a news conference in Sydney. “It’s a relief because it’s over.”
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The U.S. holds 122 prisoners at Guantanamo.
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Associated Press writer Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Australia, contributed to this report.
