Former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks will apologise to the Australian people when he is released from an Adelaide jail this weekend but still disputes any links to terrorism, his father said Friday.
The so-called "Aussie Taliban" will walk free Saturday after a six-year incarceration that began in Afghanistan, continued for half a decade in Guantanamo Bay and ended at a maximum security jail in his hometown Adelaide.
During his time behind bars, Hicks has sparked fierce debate in Australia about whether he is an Islamic militant with links to terrorist groups or a misguided adventurer who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He returned to Australia from Guantanamo Bay in May after striking a deal with US military prosecutors under which he pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorism and agreed to serve the remainder of a nine-month sentence on home soil.
Hick's father, Terry, said his son would issue a statement upon his release apologising to the Australian people for the inconvenience he had caused.
"It'll cover a lot of things, mainly the inconvenience he's caused through that five-and-a-half years plus also the thank yous (to supporters) and those sort of things," Terry Hicks told public radio.
But he said the 32-year-old had been pressured into accepting the plea bargain and his guilty plea to the US military court proved nothing.
"Nothing's really been proved, nothing's been in a proper court system, all that's happened is that David signed a piece of paper to get out of the place (Guantanamo Bay)," he said.
Hicks senior said his son was "on a high" ahead of his release but apprehensive about how he would cope with the outside world after so long behind bars.
"It's going to be pretty awesome for him, he's going to step out from a confined situation after five-and-a-half, six years to big, wide open spaces," he said. "He's not sure how he's going to cope with it. It'll be pretty overwhelming for him."
Terry Hicks told a Sydney newspaper earlier this week that his son had a panic attack on the one occasion he was removed from prison in preparation for his release and now preferred enclosed rooms to the open air.
The former kangaroo skinner was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 and was initially accused of fighting alongside the Taliban against the US-led forces which invaded the country after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
He was sent to the US military's Guanatanamo Bay base in Cuba in January 2002 and eventually charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy.
But those charges were dropped after the US courts ruled that the US military tribunal set to conduct his trial was invalid, opening the way for the lesser charge which resulted in his return to Australia.
Hicks' extended incarceration without trial at Guantanamo Bay became a political embarrassment for former prime minister John Howard's government, which was accused of abandoning him to US military justice.
An Australian court this month imposed strict conditions on Hicks ahead of his release, including a curfew, regular reports to a police station, a ban on leaving Australia and limits on him owning a mobile phone. The court ruled that Hicks was a terror risk after hearing evidence presented by Australian Federal Police, including letters from Afghanistan in which he described al Qaeda lead Osama bin Laden as a "lovely brother".
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