By Rob Gillies
Associated Press
TORONTO — A judge ruled Thursday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is required to press the United States to return a Canadian citizen who is the last Western detainee at Guantanamo Bay.
Harper has steadfastly refused to get involved in Omar Khadr’s case, saying that the Toronto native faces serious charges and that the legal process in the U.S. has to play itself out. A spokesman for Harper didn’t immediately respond to a message left by The Associated Press.
Khadr was 15 when he was accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade during a 2002 battle in Afghanistan. He is one of the youngest people ever charged with war crimes.
The Obama administration is reviewing Guantanamo cases to determine whether the remaining 245 prisoners should be tried in U.S. courts or released to other countries.
Khadr is now 22, and his lawyer said he would be willing to face prosecution in Canada and undergo a transition period keeping away from his relatives, who have previous ties to al-Qaida.
Judge James O’Reilly accepted arguments from Khadr’s lawyers that the government should have sought his repatriation. The attorneys contend Canada was complicit in what they charge was Khadr’s torture and maintain he was obliged under international law to demand the prisoner’s return.
“The ongoing refusal of Canada to request Mr. Khadr’s repatriation to Canada offends a principle of fundamental justice and violates Mr. Khadr’s rights,” the judge said in a written judgment released Thursday. “To mitigate the effect of that violation, Canada must present a request to the United States for Mr. Khadr’s repatriation to Canada as soon as practicable.”
Dennis Edney, a lawyer for Khadr, cheered the ruling.
“I’m thrilled,” he told the AP. “It’s a been long road. It’s been seven years of fighting with the federal government. The court has truly come to Omar Khadr’s rescue.”
Edney said the court’s order underlines that the government failed to protect a Canadian citizen.
“We have left him languishing,” Edney said. “We have not recognized that he is a child. It’s a real indictment of the Canadian government.”
Khadr has received some sympathy from Canadian, but his family has been widely criticized and called the “first family of terrorism.”
His father was an alleged al-Qaida militant and financier who was killed by Pakistani forces in 2003. A brother, Abdullah Khadr, is being held in Canada on a U.S. extradition warrant accusing of supplying weapons to al-Qaida. Another brother has acknowledged the family stayed with Osama bin Laden.
Addressing worries about whether Khadr is a potentially dangerous terrorist, his lawyers propose that he live with either a Muslim or Christian family upon his return to Canada.