Washington, March 27 (Xinhua) An Australian detained at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay has pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists.
David Hicks, 31, a former kangaroo skinner, Monday told a military tribunal in Cuba that he aided terrorists, a military spokesperson said.
Hicks, who has been jailed for over five years, is the first detainee charged in the revised military tribunals created under the authorisation of the US Congress last year.
Under an agreement between the US and Australia, Hicks will be sent back to Australia to serve any sentence if convicted.
A high-school dropout, Hicks travelled to Albania in 1999 to join the paramilitary Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), although he claimed he saw no fighting.
The US military said Hicks completed military training at a KLA camp and engaged in hostile action before returning to Australia, where he converted to Islam.
In 2000, Hicks allegedly went to Pakistan, where he began training with militant network Lashker-e-Taiba.
He then went to Afghanistan in January 2001 where he allegedly met Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. He was captured in Afghanistan during the US-led assault on the Taliban in 2001 and has since been held at the controversial prison camp on a remote part of a US naval installation in Cuba.
Hicks alleged that he was sodomized, beaten and subject to forced injections while in US custody, allegations the US military described as "nonsense".