Omar Khadr, Supreme Court, transfer appeal

Transfer Appeal In Omar Khadr’s Case Will be Heard by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will hear a transfer appeal in the case of Omar Khadr, and will determine whether the federal government must transfer the inmate to a provincial jail or whether Khadr can still be housed in a federal penitentiary instead. In July of this year a ruling bu the Alberta Court of Appeals found that the transfer was allowed because the US sentence that the convicted terrorist was given is the equivalent to the sentence that a minor would receive in Canada. Ottawa wasted no time in challenging the decision by the court of appeal, leading the case in front of a higher court. Since the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case the transfer can not occur until after the hearing has been held, effectively putting a stop to the transfer until after this time.

Toronto born Omar Khadr received a conviction in the USA for killing an American soldier in Afghanistan by throwing a grenade, and he was just 15 years old at the time of the event. After US forces captured Khadr in 2002 he spent a decade in Guantanamo Bay, the US prison for terrorists which is still open today. After the conviction and the time spent in Guantanamo Bay Omar Khadr was repatriated to his native Canada in 2012. Khadr plead guilty in the US court on charges of murder, attempted murder, espionage, providing support for terrorism, and conspiracy, and he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Khadr is now 28, and has spent the last 13 years of his life in one prison or another as a result of the convictions.