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Khadr seeking suppression of interrogation statements at military commission trial

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing Omar Khadr, a Canadian currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay, say they will seek to suppress statements he made during interrogation at a preliminary hearing to begin Wednesday. The hearing is to be the last before his US military commission trial in July, the first to commence under the Obama administration, which suspended the military commissions after his inauguration in January 2009. Khadr's defense team plans to bring forward as many as thirty guards, interrogators, and witnesses to testify that incriminating statements made by Khadr were the product of torture. Khadr's defense lawyers claim that Khadr was subject to 142 interrogations at both Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay. Prosecutors have described these claims as baseless, and have countered that Khadr's treatment at the hands of interrogators was humane. The Obama administration has also been seeking the extradition of Khadr's brother Abdullah Khadr, currently detained by Canadian authorities in Toronto, for trial in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Abdullah is suspected of supplying weapons to al Qaeda. Khadr's lawyers filed an emergency motion in February in the Federal Court of Canada challenging the decision of the Canadian government not to seek his repatriation from the United States. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in January that the government was not obligated to seek Khadr's return to Canada despite having violated his rights under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Khadr has allegedly admitted to throwing a hand grenade that killed a US soldier in Afghanistan, and was charged in April 2007 with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 25, 2010 (boomark / email).