Coroner & Legal
Commonwealth moves to seize Hicks royalties
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has begun legal action to seize the proceeds of former Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks’ memoirs.
Mr Hicks has been served with a restraining order as the DPP begins action to get at the earnings of his book, titled Guantanamo My Journey.
It is the first part of a process to prevent the money being spent or transferred, before an application is made under the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize the funds.
The move follows an Australian Federal Police investigation into the 35-year-old, who was sent to Guantanamo Bay in late 2001 after he was captured in Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance and handed over to US forces.
He was released from Guantanamo in 2007 after signing a pre-trial agreement in which he admitted providing material support for terrorism.
He then spent another seven months in Adelaide’s Yatala prison before being released in December 2007.
Mr Hicks’ book has sold 30,000 copies since it was published earlier this year.
The matter is to be heard in the New South Wales Supreme Court on the August 3.