Former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks heckled a senior Australian minister, calling him a "coward" while accusing the former government of having full knowledge of his alleged torture.

Hicks spent five and a half years in the notorious US military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before being convicted by a military commission of providing material support for terrorism.

The Australian has since recanted his confession, claiming he pleaded guilty only under duress. He claims he was beaten, sexually abused and drugged while in the jail from 2002 to 2007.

"Hey, my name is David Hicks!" he shouted as Attorney-General George Brandis, a member of the John Howard government in power when Hicks was incarcerated, wrapped up an address at a human rights function in Sydney on Wednesday evening.

"I was tortured for five and a half years in Guantanamo Bay in the full knowledge of your party. What do you have to say?"

Brandis walked offstage without answering, TV footage showed, with Hicks calling him "a coward".

"He's run away," Hicks, who has previously accused the government of using him as a "political scapegoat", told reporters.

Brandis dismissed the incident, and said he did not feel "remotely threatened".

AFP

(China Daily 12/12/2014 page12)