UNDER pressure to admit to crimes he says he did not commit, David Hicks wrote a letter in 2004 to his father, Terry, predicting his own future. ''Know that if I make a deal it will be against my will,'' it says. ''I just couldn't hold out any longer. Unless the deal involves me coming straight home.''
He entrusted the letter to a Guantanamo Bay guard, Albert Melise, to smuggle out for him, but Melise thought it too risky to post it. He has now made the letter public and we publish it for the first time.
Hicks tells his father that he is man enough to accept the consequences if he has committed a crime ''but I shouldn't have to admit to things I haven't done or listen to these people falsely accuse me''.
He also reveals the harsh treatment he received before he was taken to Guantanamo Bay, including what he called ''mild beatings'' - one of which, he says, lasted 10 hours.