Pentagon formally charges Khadr with murder
Sheldon Alberts, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday formally charged Canadian Omar Khadr with murdering a U.S. Army medic in Afghanistan, setting in motion highly controversial legal proceedings against an alleged terrorist detained at Guantanamo Bay since he was 15 years old.
Khadr, the Toronto-born son of an al-Qaida financier, will be arraigned before a U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo within 30 days on allegations he killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer during a firefight on July 27, 2002.
The announcement new charges had been approved by U.S. authorities came amid word Khadr be allowed to have a Canadian lawyer present as a “foreign attorney consultant” during his upcoming trial.
Family handout pic of Omar Khadr, who is still held by US military at Guantanamo Bay. At presser today, lawyers announced they were continuing pressure on the US for access to the boy.
National Post/Peter Redman
In charge sheets released by the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions, the U.S. contends Khadr “unlawfully and intentionally” murdered Speer by throwing a hand grenade at the end of a prolonged battle between al-Qaida forces and U.S. troops.
The case against Khadr, now 20, includes separate charges of attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and spying on U.S. troops, all during the summer of 2002. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
The Canadian “converted land mines into improvised explosive devices and planted said improvised explosive devices in the ground with the intent to kill U.S. or coalition forces,” according to the charge sheets.
The Pentagon also alleges Khadr received “one month of private training” from al-Qaida in the “use of rocket-propelled grenades, rifles, pistols, hand grenades and explosives.”
Khadr is the second Guantanamo detainee to face charges under new war crimes tribunals approved by Congress last year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier commissions violated international law. Earlier charges against Khadr were thrown out because of that ruling.
The case has drawn international scrutiny because of Khadr’s age at the time of his capture. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have argued it’s illegal to charge a child with war crimes.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Khadr’s attorneys called the tribunals “illegitimate” and said the U.S. will become “the first country in modern history to try an individual who was a child at the time of the alleged war crimes.”
Marine Lt.-Col. Colby Vokey, Khadr’s U.S. military attorney, and Muneer Ahmad, a U.S. civilian lawyer, appealed for the Canadian government to “negotiate a political resolution” that would see the Canadian citizen returned home.
Otherwise, Khadr “is guaranteed to be convicted in one of the greatest show trials on earth,” wrote Vokey and Ahmad, who likened the military commissions to a “kangaroo court.”
Khadr’s case has sparked little public outrage in Canada, his attorneys believe, because of his family’s documented ties with al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. His father, Ahmed Said Khadr, raised money for bin Laden and was killed by U.S. forces in 2003. A brother, Abdurahman, was also held for a time at Guantanamo while another sibling, Abdullah, is fighting extradition to the U.S. on charges of supplying weapons to al-Qaida.
Khadr has repeatedly sought to fire his U.S. lawyers and, in a telephone conversation with his mother earlier this spring, said he planned to boycott his upcoming trial.
Dennis Edney, the Khadr family’s Canadian lawyer, said Tuesday no final decision had been made on whether Omar would agree to attend his arraignment.
“There is a concern that by participating, he is legitimizing this process. It’s a tough one,” Edney said in an interview.
The Edmonton-based lawyer said he was notified Tuesday by the Department of Foreign Affairs that U.S. authorities had agreed to Khadr’s longstanding request for Canadian legal help.
Under military commission rules, detainees can only be represented at tribunal by American lawyers but can have access to “foreign attorney consultants” from their home nation.
Khadr is believed to be the last remaining citizen of a Western nation imprisoned at Guantanamo. David Hicks, a 31-year-old Australian detainee, pled guilty to terrorism charges last month and is being returned home to serve a nine-month sentence under a deal struck between with the Bush administration.
Ottawa has come under fire from Khadr’s lawyers and human rights activists for not seeking a similar deal to have him returned to Canada if convicted.
Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from a group of Guantanamo detainees, including Khadr, who were seeking to challenge their incarceration in U.S. civilian federal court.
“The whole focus of these military commissions is not to determine guilt or innocence. It’s a showcase so that the Bush administration can show the detention of Khadr and others for so long is justified,” Edney said.
According to lawyers Vokey and Ahmad, Khadr has been held at Guantanamo “in conditions equal to or worse than those given to convicted adult criminals, such as prolonged solitary confinement and repeated instances of torture.”
The U.S. military has repeatedly denied any mistreatment of Khadr.
Since the new military commissions were authorized last November, human rights activists have branded them as unfair because they allow prosecutors to introduce hearsay evidence and evidence obtained under coercion.
But U.S. military prosecutors have maintained their fairness, noting defence attorneys can also introduce hearsay evidence and that detainees have several avenues of appeal if convicted.
canada.com
© CanWest News Service 2007 |
