Canada Supreme Court hears Gitmo case
OTTAWA (AP) — The federal government argued before the Supreme Court Friday that Canadian courts do not have the right to order authorities to seek the repatriation of the youngest detainee held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay.
Omar Khadr, who was born in Toronto, was only 15 when he was captured after allegedly killing an American soldier with a grenade during a 2002 battle in Afghanistan. Authorities say his family has close links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
The Supreme Court hearing was held on the same day that the U.S. Justice Department announced that Khadr, now 23, would be among five Guantanamo detainees whose cases would be heard by military commissions in the U.S. on a variety of terrorism charges.
It was not immediately clear where Khadr and the other detainees would be sent, but a brig at a Navy base in South Carolina has been high on the list of sites under consideration.
At the same time, the Justice Department announced self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees would be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court.
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has steadfastly refused to request the return of Khadr, the last Western detainee held at the prison at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. He has said the U.S. legal process must be allowed to play itself out.
On Friday, the government argued that the Supreme Court should overturn a lower court ruling directing it to ask the U.S. to repatriate Khadr to Canada. Khadr is one of the youngest people ever charged with war crimes.
In April, a judge ruled that Canada's refusal to request Khadr's repatriation offends a fundamental sense of justice and violates his constitutional rights.
Canada's Court of Appeal dismissed the government's appeal of that decision this past summer by a majority 2-1 decision.
Khadr's lawyers contend that Canada was complicit in his alleged torture and maintain that Harper is obliged under international law to demand the prisoner's return. The U.S. has assured Canadian authorities that Khadr has been treated humanely.
Canadian officials questioned Khadr at Guantanamo and shared the results of their interrogations with U.S. authorities
Federal lawyer Robert Frater told the Supreme Court that courts should not interfere because only the Canadian government has the right to decide whether it should ask for Khadr's repatriation.
"We're in the realm of diplomacy here,"Frater said. "The government has the right to decide what requests should be made, how they should be made, and when they should be made. The courts are not in the best position to do that."
Khadr, the son of an Egyptian-born father and Palestinian-born mother, has said through his lawyer that he would be willing to face prosecution in Canada and undergo a transition period away from his relatives, who have Canadian citizenship but have been linked to al-Qaida.
His father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an alleged al-Qaida militant and financier, was killed by Pakistani forces in 2003. A brother, Abdullah Khadr, is being held in Canada on a U.S. extradition warrant, accused of supplying weapons to al-Qaida. Another brother has acknowledged the family stayed with Osama bin Laden.
Canada's three opposition parties have demanded that the Conservative government bring Khadr home.
Khadr has received some sympathy from Canadians, largely due to his age and the torture allegations, but his family has been widely criticized and called the "first family of terrorism."
