How Hicks ended up in Afghanistan

DAVID HICKS' PATH TO GUANTANAMO BAY AND TO EXONERATION:

BEGINNINGS

* Born David Matthew Hicks in Adelaide on Aug 1, 1975, grew up in Salisbury.

* Expelled from Smithfield Plains High School, aged 14, in 1990.

* Worked as a jackaroo in Northern Territory.

* Lived in Adelaide with then de facto wife Jodie Sparrow, daughter and son.

* Works as a horse trainer in Japan.

HICKS OVERSEAS

* Travelled to Albania around May 1999, joined Kosovo Liberation Army and engaged in hostile action.

* Converted to Islam on return to Adelaide mid 1999.

* Travelled to Pakistan around November 1999.

* Joined terrorist organisation Lashkar-e Tayyiba early 2000 and trained for two months at LET's Mosqua Aqsa camp in Pakistan.

* Travelled with other LET members to Kashmir and fought against Indian forces.

* Travelled to Afghanistan and attended al-Qaeda training camps around January 2001.

* Attended al-Qaeda training course at Al Farouq, which Osama bin Laden visited several times, around April 2001.

CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT

* Captured while fleeing Taliban forces in Afghanistan December 2001 and transferred to US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

* Charged by the US with conspiracy, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent, and aiding the enemy June 2004. Pleads not guilty.

* Says he's been "beaten before, after, and during interrogations", deprived of sleep and forcibly injected with sedatives.

* US Supreme Court rules US military commissions unlawful and breach Geneva Conventions. Charges against Hicks are struck out, June 2006.

* Pleads guilty to providing material support for terrorism at a US military commission hearing in March 2007. Sentenced to seven years jail under a plea bargain, to serve nine months after the rest of the sentence was suspended. The deal stipulates he will serve his time in Australia.

* Returns to Australia and taken to Adelaide's Yatala prison in May 2007.

* Released from Yatala in December 2007 under strict conditions.

* Conviction overturned by a US military court at Guantanamo Bay, February 2014.