Charges dropped but 20-year-old still in terror jail
From Paul Gains in Ontario

Ever since a military court judge dropped all charges against alleged al-Qaeda terrorist Omar Khadr, the 20-year-old Canadian has languished in a Guantanamo Bay prison cell, his residence for five years.

Khadr was captured following a battle with US troops for a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan in July 2002. All the occupants were killed, except for the then 15-year-old Khadr, who was shot twice and blinded in one eye. Prosecutors maintain he threw the grenade that killed US Medic Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer and wounded a second US soldier.

But in an astonishing turn of events ,Army Colonel John Brownback ruled on June 4 this year that under the Bush administration's Military Commissions Act the court had no jurisdiction to try Khadr because he had been classified as an "enemy combatant" and not an "unlawful enemy combatant".

Semantics, maybe, but the charges against him were dropped and prosecutors returned to their offices in Washington, DC, there to appeal Brownback's decision or file new charges.

The case was intended to be the first conviction of a Guantanamo Bay terrorist, thereby justifying the US policy of holding hundreds of suspected terrorists without trial.

Meanwhile, Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney, from Dundee, continues the fight - at his own expense - to have his client released from "Gitmo" to face Canadian justice.

"Legally it looks as if there is going to be a whole host of legal challenges that will take place and for Khadr it means next to nothing for him in the sense that he is still confined in this limbo, which is approaching six years now," said the fiery Edmonton-based lawyer.

Recently Amnesty International has called for Khadr's release. The Ottawa branch of the human rights group has sent a letter to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper signed by current and retired politicians, as well as some of the foremost legal experts in the country.

Edney wonders where they were five years ago and questions the circumstances in which Khadr was captured.

"One of the questions I ask myself is, how does one become a terrorist on a battlefield? And two, how did Khadr get there as a 15-year-old boy?" Edney asked.

"What choice did he have? His father turned him over to Taliban warriors and they crossed the border and ended up in this house. Don't we hold parents accountable for babysitters who look after their children? And what about self-defence? If Omar Khadr is the worst of the worst we have nothing to fear from al-Qaeda."

Khadr's Egyptian-born father Ahmed Said Khadr was killed in a shoot-out with Pakistani troops in Afghanistan four years ago. The US authorities believe he was a financier for al-Qaeda and a close friend of Osama bin Laden. In the same firefight Omar's brother, Karim, believed to have been 11 or 12 at the time, was shot and paralysed from the waist down. He now lives with his mother and sisters in a Toronto apartment. Another brother, Abdullah, has been accused of gun-running for al-Qaeda and remains in a Toronto detention centre facing extradition to the US.

Their mother and sister have also made headlines for praising Islamic martyrdom while condemning Canadian efforts to free Omar. All in all the family enjoys a notoriety that Edney admits hurts his client's image.

"I recognise that the Khadr family, particularly Mrs Khadr and her daughter, have said the most outrageous and stupid comments and I have told them that," Edney revealed, "but that has very little to do with your obligations as a government for citizens, standing up for citizens, particularly citizens such as youths, who have particular status under international law."

Contacted last week, a spokesman for Canadian foreign affairs minister Peter Mackay appeared to be maintaining the government's position that they are satisfied with the way things are proceeding.

"Charges against Khadr have been dismissed without prejudice and as minister Peter MacKay said on June 13 it's premature to discuss this issue before such time as the appeals process has been exhausted," said Alain Cacchione. "MacKay has raised Khadr's case with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on several occasions and requested that Khadr be given a medical and psychological assessment. We also facilitated Khadr's access to his family and his defence counsel."

Cacchione was unable to say whether Khadr has been given that independent psychological evaluation. Meanwhile, Edney said he feared for his client's mental and physical state.

"I'm a tough criminal lawyer and I find myself quite shocked at his condition," he said. "He is in solitary confinement. Every time I see him he's handcuffed and chained to the floor. There are two soldiers with him always. He can't even go to the bathroom without someone watching him. The hardest men wouldn't be able to stand this treatment."

According to Edney, his client is suffering both physically and mentally. He is blind in one eye and partially blind in the other. He has been allowed one phone call from his family who had to drive to Ottawa - a five-hour drive from their home - to make the call. The call was monitored by the Canadian government and no legal counsel was allowed in the room.

Looking to the future, Edney shook his head when talking about the evidence against his client. "Although I am not allowed to talk about the evidence under penalty of 70 years in jail, my sense is that they have no direct evidence showing Khadr Jr standing on the ramparts of the house throwing a hand grenade," he said.

"What do they have? Well they supposedly have a video tape. Then they have the confessions Khadr gave when he was in hospital. He had been shot twice in the body, he was blind in one eye and he was severely injured. I recall quotations of Americans saying how he was singing like a bird while he was under those conditions.

"They are going to bring Speer's the dead soldier's wife as a witness on the stand. What is she going to say? And they have Lance Corporal Morris, who lost an eye. I am quite familiar with Morris. He got himself a $100 million judgment when Khadr couldn't defend himself. He's now going to get up under oath and say he is giving unconflicted evidence when he is clearly conflicted."

If Khadr was to face Canada's criminal court system, Edney could take his chances. The US military tribunals, on the other hand, are quite a different prospect.