Lawyer argues Omar Khadr imprisoned illegally, calls for immediate release

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      Omar Khadr should immediately be released from prison, the lawyer for the former Guantanamo Bay detainee has said.

      In an application filed in Alberta—where Khadr is held at the maximum-security Edmonton Institution—Dennis Edney argued that his client is being held illegally and should therefore be set free.

      According to a Toronto Star report, the case for Khadr’s release rests on the argument that the young man has been imprisoned under terms for an adult, which is illegal given that Khadr was found guilty of crimes that occurred when he was a youth.

      The Canadian government has not responded to Edney’s application.

      Khadr was captured at the age of 15 in in Afghanistan in July 2002. The American government maintains he killed a member of the army’s special forces. Khadr was held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay from 2002 until September 2012, when he was transferred to a Canadian facility in Ottawa. In May 2013, Khadr was moved to the Edmonton Institution, where he remains today.

      “This government needs to be made accountable for its mistreatment of Omar Khadr when in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in Canada,” Edney wrote in a statement provided to the Star. “(Canada) was complicit with the U.S. in his abuse and torture and it continues to abuse him in Canada by locking him away, in a maximum security prison, as an adult, instead of being treated as a youth.”

      In October 2010, Khadr was convicted of five military commission offences include “murder in the violation of war”.

      A Canadian citizen, he holds the distinction of being both the youngest detainee ever held at the U.S. detention facility, as well as the prisoner with a Western passport held the longest.

      Comments

      3 Comments

      gainrock

      Aug 13, 2013 at 6:06pm

      leave him in federal prison. He is a criminal and must do his time

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      mike

      Aug 13, 2013 at 6:25pm

      He is a terrorist period , like his father and brother. He was on film making improvised explosive bombs to kill western troops, he is suspected of killing a us medic at a terrorist training base. This US medic has kids now who have no dad. He does not deny any of this, and he pleaded guilty of killing the medic. Now, my only question is, why should we give any sympathy to a traitor and killer. He should be locked away forever or placed in general population for a few days, either or.

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      tony blair

      Oct 29, 2013 at 9:38am

      40 million people have been killed directly and indirectly by the american military and white house war criminals since the end of the 2nd world war. The third and fourth generation will suffer, that means your grandchildren will reap what you have sown. Obama makes Al Capone look like an altar boy.

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