Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks will be sent home to serve nine months in prison after being sentenced by a military judge at the facility.
Hicks, 31, was sentenced to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to supporting terrorism, but all but nine months of the sentence was suspended.
The ex-kangaroo skinner has been in the prison for five years since his capture in Afghanistan as a Taleban fighter.
Australia’s government has reacted coolly to news of his transfer.
Under a plea bargain deal with the prosecution, Hicks could only be sentenced to a maximum of seven years.
The plea deal also specifies that any term beyond nine months be suspended, the judge at the sentencing hearing on Friday evening revealed.
The US must now send Hicks to his home country within 60 days - by 29 May.
“We hope that it happens much quicker than that,” said his defence lawyer, Col Michael Mori.
Comment: Had it been a black or brown man pleading guilty to terrorrism, would he have received 9 months in his own country?