Khadr appeal in U.S. hits ‘troubling’ legal snag
TORONTO An American military court has thrown a wrench into an attempt by former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr to appeal his war-crimes convictions, The Canadian Press has learned.
In an order his lawyer called unprecedented, the Court of Military Commission Review has told both sides to file arguments only on whether the court has the authority to hear the appeal.
“It’s terribly unfair to Khadr,” Sam Morison, Khadr’s American lawyer, who works for the U.S. Defence Department, said in an interview Friday. “The court’s supposed to be neutral. That’s what’s most troubling.”
Normally, appeal courts hear arguments on all the issues at play — including the merits of the case — allowing everything to be decided together.
The military court’s new tack, however, could see the case drag on interminably if it decides it has no authority to hear the appeal regardless of its merits.
If that happens, Khadr, 27, would first have to ask a civilian court to order the military court to hear the case, and then, if successful, would have to start from scratch to argue the merits. The process could take years.
Khadr pleaded guilty to five war crimes in October 2010 and was sentenced to eight more years in custody.
His lawyers maintain a guilty plea was his only way out of Guantanamo, given that he faced indefinite detention even if acquitted.
The Toronto-born Khadr appealed the convictions Nov. 8, arguing what he was convicted of doing as a 15-yearold in Afghanistan was not a war crime under American or international law.
While Khadr appears to have given up his right to contest his conviction under terms of his plea deal, Morison argues military commission authorities didn’t follow the appropriate appeal-waiver law.