Canadian lawmakers open Gitmo hearings
Posted on Wed, Apr. 30, 2008
Associated Press
KHADR FAMILY via CANADIAN PRESS
This 2002 photo provided by the Khadr family shows Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen now held as an "enemy combatant" at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
OTTAWA --
Canadian lawmakers began public hearings Tuesday on the detention and trial of a Canadian being held at Guantánamo Bay for allegedly killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan as a teenager.
Omar Khadr, 21, is accused of lobbing a hand grenade that killed the soldier in 2002. He was 15 at the time, but under the U.S. military tribunal system, he will be tried under the same rules as an adult -- a move critics say violates international law on the treatment of so-called child soldiers.
Khadr is the last citizen of a western democracy to be held at Guantánamo after other countries, including Australia and Britain, successfully appealed to U.S. authorities to repatriate their citizens.
Khadr's U.S. lawyer told a parliamentary committee on international human rights that there's no hard evidence to support the murder charge against Khadr -- but he'll likely be found guilty anyway if he's tried before a military tribunal.
''Given the nature of these proceedings, given the very prejudicial nature of the evidence that I anticipate will be introduced against him at trial . . . I believe he will be convicted and I believe he will receive an adult sentence,'' the lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said. ``I believe that he will receive a life sentence or something very close to it.''
He said the only hope for real justice is for Ottawa to demand his repatriation to Canada.
Canada's Conservative government, which has repeatedly refused to intervene in the case, showed no sign of changing its mind in response to Kuebler's pleas Tuesday and the committee has little say in the matter.
Conservative Member of Parliament Jason Kenney described the military tribunal system as legal under U.S. law and said there would be no legal mechanism for bringing Khadr before the courts in Canada.
Kuebler attributed the reluctance of Ottawa to intervene in the case to the unpopularity of the Khadr family. Deceased patriarch Ahmed was a senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, and other family members have expressed sympathy for al Qaeda.
Canadian lawyers for Khadr argued last month before Canada's Supreme Court that the U.S. is violating international norms by holding him at Guantánamo. The court has yet to issue their ruling in the case.
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