Canada High Court Rules Guantanamo ex-Inmate a Child Offender
Canada's high court Thursday rejected Ottawa's bid to treat former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, who was just 15 when he was captured on an Afghan battlefield, as an adult criminal.
The government had brought the legal challenge to prevent Khadr's transfer from a Canadian federal penitentiary to a more comfortable provincial correctional facility for petty criminals and young offenders.
But the Supreme Court decision is now moot since Khadr was released on bail last week.
Khadr was repatriated to Canada in September 2012, after spending 10 years in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba following his arrest in Afghanistan as a teenager in 2002.
He was sentenced to eight years in 2010 following a military hearing in which he agreed to plead guilty to murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying.
The murder charge related to a grenade attack that killed a U.S. soldier. Khadr is appealing the conviction in the United States.
In the meantime, Ottawa has resisted labeling Khadr a child offender, saying it was an attempt to lessen his punishment and get him out of prison sooner. Young offenders are given shorter sentences than adult criminals under Canadian law.
But the high court found that Khadr's eight-year sentence was below the minimum for an adult sentence, and so he must be considered a child offender.
Source: Agence France Presse
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