‘I’m not happy,’ Khadr’s mom says
Relief at son’s return to Canada marred by fear he will be treated as a war criminal
The mother of Omar Khadr says the fact that her son has returned to Canada a convicted war criminal doesn’t make her happy and Canada needs to do more to give him his rights back.
“If he’s treated as a criminal, a convicted war criminal, I’m not happy,” an emotional Maha Elsamnah told the Star on Sunday. “I want him to come back as a person who has been abused and misunderstood. I want Canada to give him his right.”
Khadr, 26, landed at the Trenton military airbase early Saturday after a flight from Guantanamo Bay. American officials formally transferred Khadr into Canada’s care, bringing to an end U.S. involvement in the decade-long case.
On Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told CTV that pressure from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama forced the prisoner exchange months ahead of schedule.
“Obviously the Americans are closing down the prison and wanted to send him back and under law, Canadian law, we’re pretty obliged to take him.”
Standing at the door of her Scarborough apartment Sunday morning, Elsamnah criticized Canadian media for their portrayal of her son and the lack of “truth” written about him and her late husband, Ahmed Said Khadr, who was killed by Pakistani forces in 2003.
“If this is what the Canadians want to know, that people can be killed and not stand up, stand up and be angry and hurt when you’re being attacked, or abused or bullied.
“We don’t feel like we’re being treated fairly,” Elsamnah said before her daughter Zaynab Ahmed Khadr, slammed the door.
A short time later, Elsamnah returned after a Star reporter slipped a note through the mail slot asking how she feels about her son being sent to Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont.
“If anyone has any common sense, it’s very emotional for us,” she said. “If someone has some common sense they’d understand I’m a mother and I’m happy and sad at the same time.”
Khadr’s exit from Guantanamo brings an end to what the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights said Saturday was “one of the ugliest chapters” in the history of the Cuba-based American detention centre.
The Khadr saga began in June 2002 on the battlefield in Afghanistan where U.S. Delta Force Sgt. Christopher Speer was fatally wounded and 15-year-old Khadr was taken into U.S. custody.
In Oct. 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty to five war crimes, including murder. Khadr received an eight-year sentence in return for his guilty plea and a diplomatic note that said Ottawa would “favourably” consider his transfer to a Canadian prison after one more year in Guantanamo. The Toronto-born Khadr was Guantanamo’s youngest prisoner and its last western detainee. With files from Star wire services