Omar Khadr has been released from
Guantanamo, where he has been detained for a decade, to serve the remainder of
his sentence in Canada pursuant to a prisoner exchange agreement. When he was
fifteen, Khadr was in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban against the United
States. There, he threw a grenade that killed an American soldier. In 2010, he
pleaded guilty for doing this and was sentenced to an eight-year prison term.
Years earlier, nationals of the UK,
Australia and other countries who had been detained were repatriated at the
request of their governments. By contrast, Canada’s right wing government has
refused to do anything to assist Omar Khadr, who was born in Canada and is a
Canadian citizen. As early as April of this year, the US authorities indicated
they were ready to repatriate Khadr. The Canadian government has been dragging
its heels on bringing him home.
It is doubtful that a Canadian young
offender, aged fifteen, would be sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
Khadr has been in detention for a decade already anyway.
His crime has always been a bit of a
mystery to me. There was (and is) an armed conflict going on in Afghanistan.
Why is it a crime for a combatant on one side in the conflict to kill a
combatant on the other side? And even if it is a crime, presumably it would be
a crime under the laws of Afghanistan. Why then would someone be tried for this
crime in Guantanamo and then serve his sentence in Canada? Khadr pleaded guilty
as a result of an agreement, but he had little real choice. Without a plea
deal, he might have much longer in Guantanamo.
Khadr should be released from detention
in Canada as soon as possible. He is eligible for release sometime in 2013.
This will be a matter for the country’s parole authorities, who we should
presume will behave in a fair and objective manner, without the perverse
political bias of the Canadian government authorities. If the Harper government
had done its job, Khadr would already be a free man.
There remain 166 detainees in
Guantanamo. Four years ago, Barrack Obama promised that if he were elected the
notorious prison would be shut down.
With respect, professor,
ReplyDelete1. "Why is it a crime for a combatant on one side in the conflict to kill a combatant on the other side?"
As you are well aware, not everybody can lawfully take lifes even in an armed conflict. If Khadr was an unprivileged belligerent, he has committed first degree murder.
2. "And even if it is a crime, presumably it would be a crime under the laws of Afghanistan. Why then would someone be tried for this crime in Guantanamo and then serve his sentence in Canada?"
Murder is a crime in Afghanistan and in the rest of the world as well. The US had jurisdiction since the victim was an American national and the judgment can be executed in another country as well...