By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
OTTAWA, Canada — Omar Khadr is appealing his conviction for killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, but Canadian officials say that an overturn will not automatically guarantee his freedom.
Khadr, now 26, spent 10 years in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay following his arrest in Afghanistan as a 15-year-old in 2002. In 2010, he confessed to five war crimes before a military tribunal, including the murder of U.S. Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, an army medic, during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan.
Last September, Khadr was repatriated in Canada to a high-security prison as part of a plea deal that included an eight-year sentence and a waiver of his right to appeal.
But Khadr and his attorneys say that the court that convicted him had no jurisdiction to do so, and they want his terror convictions overturned.
“You can’t make a crime a crime retroactively,” lawyer David Frakt told the Global News. Frakt, who has represented prominent Guantanamo detainees in the past, believes Khadr has good odds that two of his convictions will be overturned.
But reversing the murder conviction in violation of the law of war might stand no chance. When Khadr pled guilty, the agreement outlined his killing Sgt. Speer. To overturn that, Khadr’s attorneys would have to argue that the entire plea deal is invalid, as well as everything that resulted from it.
“It’s all about keeping Omar’s options in a difficult political climate,” Khadr’s Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, told the Global News. “If successful, Omar Khadr will finally be free and able to put to rest our government’s descriptors of him as a ware criminal and a terrorist. This is a common misconception that needs to be corrected.”
Canadian authorities insist, however, that even if Khadr’s convictions are overturned in the United States, the Parole Board of Canada will decide what ultimately happens to him.
“Omar Khadr is a convicted terrorist,” said Julie Carmichael, an aide to Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, in a statement emailed to the Globe and Mail. “He pleaded guilty to the murder of Christopher Speer, an American Army medic. Decisions related to his future will be made by the Parole Board of Canada.”
Since being transferred to Canada from Guantanamo last fall, Khadr has been held at Millhaven Institution, a maximum-security prison in Bath, Ontario. He will be eligible for a parole hearing this summer. At least one Canadian member of parliament is upset by the appeal.
“While this individual attempts to take back his own words and recant his guilty plea, he is simply re-victimizing the family of Sgt. Speer,” Toronto Member of Parliament Roxanne James told the Commons on Monday.
The appeal, which Khadr’s American lawyer, Sam Morrison, said would be filed “as soon as possible,” will be heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
“[U]ltimately it can go to the Supreme Court,” legal expert Jeffrey Addicott told Sun News. Addicott, who has advised the U.S. government on Guantanamo-related cases, is director of the Center for Terrorism Law in San Antonio, Texas.
“[W]e’re talking a period of years before anything will be resolved one way or the other,” he added, saying that Khadr’s appeal is unlikely to succeed. “In my opinion, this appeal is dead on arrival. He didn’t have the standing to engage in combat. Therefore, if you kill another person, it’s murder.”
For further information, please see:
Global News — Omar Khadr May Win Appeal, But No Ticket Out of Prison — 30 April 2013
Sun News — Khadr ‘Re-Victimizing’ Murdered Medic’s Family, Says Tory MP — 29 April 2013
AFP — Canadian-Born Guantanamo Convict Plans Appeal: Report — 28 April 2013
Globe and Mail — Omar Khadr’s Freedom in Ottawa’s Hands Despite U.S. Appeal, Safety Minister Insists — 28 April 2013
