Inmate attacks Khadr in jail
OTTAWA — A month after Omar Khadr was transferred to an Edmonton prison for his own safety, he was assaulted by a fellow inmate.
The former Guantanamo Bay detainee was attacked at Edmonton Institution just after 8 p.m. on June 14.
He was struck in the face the moment he stepped out onto a range. Khadr pressed his jail cell alarm for help and reported the attack to guards right away.
The guards then escorted Khadr and his alleged attacker, Kenneth Ratte, to segregation units. Khadr was not seriously injured, according to staff at the prison.
The Toronto-born Khadr, 26, was transferred to Canada last September to serve out the remainder of an eight-year sentence handed down by U.S. military commission for war crimes he pleaded guilty to committing as a 15-yearold in Afghanistan.
He spent several months in Millhaven penitentiary west of Kingston, Ont., before being transferred to Edmonton in May.
At the time, his lawyer, Dennis Edney, said someone had taken a contract out on Khadr’s life.
Edney told Postmedia News that he hoped the transfer would give Khadr “an opportunity for a fresh start, and hopefully this will be a first step on the road to freedom.”
Khadr had asked to be jailed at Edmonton Institution when he was first transferred to Canada.