As Socialist Worker goes to press, David Hicks was due to arrive back in Australia within days. A specially chartered plane was to fly him from Guantanamo Bay to Adelaide's Yatala prison.

But this will not mean an end to the abuse of his rights. He is to he held in the prison's high security G division and denied any contact with other prisoners, banned from physical contact with visitors and will have his phone calls monitored. His father, Terry Hicks, claims the no contact rules are harsher than those at Guantanamo Bay. The conditions are contained in a management plan agreed between the South Australian and federal governments.

The treatment of the men arrested on terrorism charges in Melbourne and Sydney in late 2005 give an indication of what David Hicks is coming back to in jail in Australia. The men face similar bans on contact with family and are held in maximum security, despite the fact that they are have still not been convicted of anything. They also face regular mistreatment by prison guards.

There was a particularly shocking example of this recently, while the men were being transported to a court appearance. Every time they appear in court, they are forced to wait in police vans for an hour before and after each trip. On one occasion the men were taken to court in a van without air conditioning, according to Rob Stary, lawyer for the 13 men being held at Barwon prison in Victoria. The temperature inside reached 50 degrees.

One man was unconscious by the time he was released from the van and another suffered an asthma attack. Because they had abused the prison officers while kicking and screaming to be let out of the van, they were forced to strip naked and stand with their noses to the wall until the officer received an apology.

This treatment is further evidence of how scaremongering about terrorism is being used as an excuse to trample on accepted legal and human rights.

James Supple