Document: Canada asked US not to send teenage detainee to Guantanamo

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Canada asked the United States not to send former child soldier Omar Khadr to Guantanamo after he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, according to a letter released on Thursday.

In the document dated September 2002, Ottawa argued that the prison camp in southeastern Cuba was an "inappropriate'' place for Khadr, a Canadian citizen, because he was just 15 years old at the time.

The letter was submitted in court filings by defense attorneys who have urged the Canadian government to demand Khadr's return from Guantanamo Bay, where he is expected to face a military trial by this summer on charges of killing a U.S. soldier.

"It's certainly shocking as we sit here today that Canada is the last Western country to tolerate the detention of one of its citizens at Guantanamo Bay,'' said Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, Khadr's Pentagon-appointed lawyer. He has argued that his client cannot receive a fair trial at Guantanamo.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.com/News/200804170768