US Supreme Court spurns former Guantanamo Bay detainee's appeal
Source: Reuters
May 20, 2024 3:07 PM EDT Updated 5 hours ago
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court turned away on Monday a Canadian former Guantanamo Bay detainee's bid to vacate his convictions for the 2002 murder of an American soldier in Afghanistan and other crimes he committed at age 15 to which he later pleaded guilty.
The justices declined to hear an appeal by Omar Khadr, now age 37, of a lower court's refusal to hear his case on the grounds that he had waived his right to appellate review as part of a 2010 plea agreement before a U.S. military commission.
Khadr, who was one of the youngest prisoners held at the detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, pleaded guilty in exchange for an eight-year sentence and transfer to a Canadian prison. Khadr was granted bail in 2015 and completed his sentence in 2019 as he continued to pursue dismissal of his U.S. convictions.
He was taken to Afghanistan by his father, a senior al Qaeda member who apprenticed his son to a group of bomb makers who opened fire when U.S. troops came to their compound in 2002. During the firefight, Khadr, 15, threw a hand grenade that killed Sergeant Christopher Speer, a U.S. Army medic. Khadr was gravely wounded - shot twice - when he was captured by U.S. forces.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-spurns-former-guantanamo-bay-detainees-appeal-2024-05-20/