Thursday, October 11, 2007

Holding court


Recently I had the good fortune to go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and draw the tribunal for David Hicks, the ony detainee so far to have gotten a sentence and moved through a tribunal as of now. It was the first time any of the media- or outside world- had seen Hicks in 5 years. My job as the only court artist there was to capture how he looked. There were no cameras nor other artists allowed; whatever I produced was all that could go out.
It turned out to be quite dramatic. Hicks had gone from a militant and fit person to the opposite. Then, to the surprise of all, this turned into a case that would be heard and finished, so the media all stayed on for a week while waiting for a military jury to be flown in. The next time we saw Hicks he'd gotten a haircut and wore a suit- quite a change. Working alongside the media and the military was tremendous to say the least.

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