Aussie Taliban fighter David Hicks freed

ADELAIDE, Australia, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Confessed Australian terrorism supporter David Hicks has been released from prison near his home town of Adelaide, South Australia.

Hicks, who spent more than five years in the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being captured fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan, was driven to an undisclosed destination on leaving Yatala prison.

The 32-year-old Hicks said he was not strong enough to appear before the media.

However, in a statement read to reporters by his lawyer David McLeod, he said he intended to honor an agreement not to talk to the media before the end of March 2008, which was part of the deal on his release from Guantanamo.

Hicks also expressed "the huge debt of gratitude that I owe the Australian public for getting me home" in his statement.

An interim control order required Hicks to report to police three times a week and comply with a curfew.

Hicks was transferred to Adelaide's Yatala prison nine months ago to serve the remainder of the sentence imposed on him by a Guantanamo military court for providing material support for terrorism.