Harper appeals court ruling on Khadr

Chutney · Jun 23, 2009

Federal lawyers are appealing a court ruling that ordered the government to seek Omar Khadr's return from Guantanamo Bay.

The federal government has filed an appeal of a Federal Court ruling that it seek the return of Mr. Khadr, 22, from the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

Judge James O'Reilly ruled in April that the Conservative government's refusal to demand repatriation of Mr. Khadr offends fundamental justice. The judge ruled that the government must ask the United States “as soon as practicable” to send Mr. Khadr home.

Opposition parties have demanded that Mr. Khadr be brought home and tried in Canada, if necessary, in light of the court decision. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Fox News this month that Canada won't be taking any Guantanamo Bay detainees. Mr. Harper told the U.S. network that he is “not offering Canada as a safe haven for anyone that the United States considers to be a terrorist.”

Without mentioning Mr. Khadr by name, the prime minister said there is a Canadian at Guantanamo who's charged and his government is waiting to see what the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama does in that particular case.

The charges against Mr. Khadr are before an American military commission, but the hearings are on hold pending a review of his case.

Prisoners from other western countries, including Britain and Australia, were sent home long ago. Mr. Khadr is thought to be the last westerner at Guantanamo.

Mr. Khadr, who was born in Toronto, was 15 when he was captured by American soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002. He allegedly tossed a grenade that killed a military medic. While Mr. Khadr's plight has won him some symphony, his family has been widely criticized and called the “first family of terrorism.”

His father was an alleged al-Qaeda 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, accused of supplying weapons to al-Qaeda. Another brother, Karim, was wounded and left a paraplegic in the gunfight that killed his father. He returned to Canada in 2004 for medical treatment and lives in Toronto.

Government lawyers were in court appealing the Khadr ruling days after Ottawa reversed its position on another Canadian jailed abroad.

The government said last week it would follow the Federal Court's order to let Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Montreal man jailed in Sudan, return to Canada. Mr. Abdelrazik was arrested but not charged during a 2003 visit to see his mother in Sudan. He says CSIS and American FBI officers interrogated him over purported terrorist links.

Mr. Abdelrazik also claims he was tortured. Canada says it knew nothing of the alleged abuse.
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Source: Globe and Mail

What a tremendous dickhead.

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Harper appeals court ruling on Khadr

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