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OTTAWA — Omar Khadr's Canadian lawyers have filed a lawsuit with the Federal Court of Canada demanding that Prime Minister Stephen Harper intervene on behalf of the 22-year-old Canadian, who has spent the past six years in Guantanamo Bay detention camps.
In a lawsuit filed Friday, Mr. Khadr's lawyers are asking the court to require the Prime Minister to demand the Canadian's release before his military commissions trial begins in Guantanamo. The trial is expected to start in October.
“[Notwithstanding] its affirmative obligation to co-operate in reintegration efforts, Canada (the first country to ratify the Child Soldier Protocol and leader in international efforts to protect children involved in armed conflict) has done nothing except hide behind vague assurances that Omar is being treated ‘humanely' – assurances the Canadian government has known for years to be absolutely false,” Mr. Khadr's lawyers wrote in a statement Friday.
“It is time for Prime Minister Harper to stand up for the rights of a Canadian citizen.”
Omar Khadr in an undated family photo
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The new lawsuit comes on the heels of a recent partial success for Mr. Khadr's defence team at the Federal Court. Earlier this summer, the court ordered the release of more than seven hours of video documenting interrogations involving Canadian officials and Mr. Khadr from five years ago – interrogations that both the U.S. and Canadian Supreme Courts later ruled took place in the context of an illegal detention environment. The video – the first footage ever released of a Guantanamo interrogation – became one of the biggest Canadian news stories of the year, and made headlines around the world.
Mr. Khadr's lawyers say their newest lawsuit is modelled on similar challenges in Australia and Britain. Both countries eventually managed to have their citizens removed from the detention camps.
The Conservative government has been staunchly opposed to intervening on Mr. Khadr's behalf, arguing that it would be premature to do so while a legal process is under way. Revelations this year about both the case and Mr. Khadr's treatment in Guantanamo have apparently done nothing to change Ottawa's position.
Kory Teneycke, the Prime Minister's director of communication, called the lawyers' move “predictable,” saying Mr. Khadr's defence team is attempting to avoid a trial on the charges against their client, which include murder.
Mr. Teneycke said Ottawa wants to see the Khadr matter settled through a judicial process, not a political one and “certainly not in the media.”
Mr. Khadr was 15 when he was captured in a 2002 Afghan firefight. He is alleged to have thrown a grenade during that battle that fatally wounded a U.S. soldier. That allegation forms the basis of the murder charge against him.
