Lawyers allege prosecution pressure at Omar Khadr’s trial

[CHIMO]

Source: Associated Press

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO—Lawyers for a former teenage Al Qaeda militant imprisoned at Guantanamo are seeking clemency for him, arguing that his sentencing at his military tribunal was tainted by improper witness testimony and prosecution manoeuvres.

Omar Khadr’s lawyers have asked the military’s Convening Authority, the Pentagon official who oversees the tribunals at the U.S. base in Cuba, to cut his sentence in half to four years on charges that include murder for throwing a grenade that mortally wounded an American soldier in Afghanistan.

The Canadian-born Khadr, who was 15 when captured in 2002, pleaded guilty on Oct. 25 as part a pretrial agreement that capped his sentence at eight years and required him not to appeal. But the defence now argues in a letter seeking clemency that the sentencing hearing before a jury of military officers was flawed.

Khadr’s Pentagon-appointed defence lawyers argue that Michael Welner, a New York-based forensic psychiatrist who analyzed the prisoner and concluded that he would pose a threat to society if released, “provided unscientific opinions to intimidate the sentencing panel,” according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained Tuesday by Associated Press.



Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/977303--lawyers-allege-prosecution-pressure-at-omar-khadr-s-trial?bn=1

[PDJane]

1. The young man is a victim of both his family

And American Justice, such as it is.

He should have been brought home, but Harper, being a member of the religious right and a toady of George Bush denied him the assistance he should have had as a citizen.