Khadr lawyer says U.S. ruling ‘dooms’ charges
D.C. court tosses out conviction of another Guantanamo detainee
A decision from a U.S. circuit court Friday gives a major boost to Omar Khadr’s appeal of his five convictions by the contentious military commission in Guantanamo, says his Edmonton lawyer.
The District of Columbia court dismissed as legally flawed a conviction against another Guantanamo detainee, an al-Qaida recruiter also tried under the military commission system created under former U.S. president George W. Bush.
The court ruled that the conspiracy conviction of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul is invalid because the conspiracy offence is not an internationally recognized war crime. Military commissions only have jurisdiction to try internationally recognized war crimes.
Similar arguments have been made in the Khadr case.
“By implication, the legal decision inevitably dooms other charges against Khadr,” said Nate Whitling, Khadr’s lawyer.
In a 2010 plea bargain, Khadr pleaded guilty to five crimes committed when he was 15 in a 2002 battle in Afghanistan, including murder for killing an American soldier, material support for terrorism, attempted murder, conspiracy and spying.
“The judgment says the international community does not recognize (alBahlul)’s offences as war crimes, so the commission had no jurisdiction,” said Whitling.
The U.S. government had already recognized the crimes were not internationally recognized, but argued they are part of domestic common law, said Whitling.
If that’s the case, the accused must be tried in regular U.S. courts with normal legal rights, not restrictive military commissions, he said.
Whitling noted that Khadr’s appeal had been put in abeyance by the court of military commission review, the first level of appeal, until the alBahlul case was settled.
“The appeal can now proceed” unless the U.S government decides to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, said Whitling.
“This is the case we’ve been waiting for. It’s very strong support for his appeal,” said Whitling.
Khadr, freed on bail last month while awaiting his appeal, is about halfway through his eight-year sentence. He’s been reclassified as a minimum security risk and is living with the family of his other lawyer, Dennis Edney.
This is the second appeal court decision to cast doubt on Khadr’s convictions.
In 2012, the U.S. court threw out the conviction of Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, for providing material support for terrorism — also one of Khadr’s offences. The conviction was also dismissed because there was no such war crime under international law at the time.
Khadr is the only person to be convicted of murder while in a battle, Whitling said.
“At all times, we are focused on supporting the victims of crimes and ensuring the safety of Canadians. Omar Khadr has pleaded guilty to heinous crimes, including the murder of American Army medic Sergeant Christopher Speer,” Jeremy Laurin, a spokesman for federal Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, said in a release.