A Canadian judge ruled on Friday that former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr will not be transferred from a maximum-security federal prison to a provincial jail.
Justice John Rooke dismissed an application from Khadr’s lawyer that his 27-year-old client be moved out of the Edmonton Institution in Alberta.
Lawyer Dennis Edney had argued that his client should be treated as a young offender and be moved out of maximum security.
The Toronto-born Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war crime offenses, including murder, for killing an US soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15.
A US military commission convicted him of throwing a grenade that killed US Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer during a 2002 firefight.
He was sentenced to eight years, but the military commission did not specify if it was a youth or adult sentence.
Khadr spent a decade at Guantanamo, the US naval base in Cuba.
In September last year, he was transferred to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence. He was first incarcerated largely in isolation at the maximum security Millhaven Institution in eastern Ontario before moving to Edmonton in May.
Edney had argued that an eight-year sentence for the murder and four other crimes only made sense as a youth sentence.
The federal government argued that Khadr was given eight years as a youth for murder and the sentences on the four remaining offenses were to be served concurrently as an adult.
Rooke agreed Khadr was sentenced as a youth on the murder charge and as an adult on the four other charges. The issue then became where best to serve the sentence.
“Mr Khadr obviously cannot be in an adult provincial facility for adults and a penitentiary at the same time,” Rooke wrote. “Therefore, the question is where is the offender sentenced to youth and adult sentences to serve that sentence?”
Given that part of Khadr’s sentence is being served as an adult, Rooke found that his placement in a penitentiary is lawful.
Edney said his client plans to appeal.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was