A report this week in Montreal’s LaPresse stated that the 25-year-old Toronto-born Khadr will be imprisoned at the vacant Millhaven immigration centre, derisively dubbed “Guantanamo North.”
The $3.2-million, six-bunk facility, was built in 2006 to house non-Canadian terrorism suspects held on controversial national security certificates.
Despite its name, and aside from the isolation, the Millhaven facility is hardly comparable to the Guantanamo cell where Khadr is now — or many of Canada’s federal prisons where he could be held.
As Hassan Almrei, who was held there before a federal court judge dismissed his case, said in a 2007 interview, “I’m lucky to be detained in this country. I’m not denying that. (But) they’re not talking about the colour of the clothes, it’s the principle. The principle of Guantanamo Bay.”
A Canadian government official had previously told the Toronto Star that Ottawa was also considering the Quebec penitentiary where the majority of those convicted of terrorism offences are serving their sentences, including some members of the so-called Toronto 18 plot.
But quoting an unnamed source, La Presse said Millhaven is where Khadr is headed.
When, however, is unclear.
“No one has told Omar, or us, anything about when he can expect to be transferred,” Khadr’s Toronto lawyer John Norris said Wednesday. “We have been patient with the process but our patience is running out. Omar fulfilled his part of the plea agreement; it is time for the United States to do the same.”
An official with the Obama administration close to the case told the Star that the transfer has been bogged down in the usual Guantanamo bureaucratic morass but that Washington wanted him sent to Canada.
The decision for the transfer ultimately rests with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. Toews’s spokesperson said Khadr’s file has “not come before the minister.”
“(C)ertainly no decision has been made on whether he might be transferred to Canada,” Michael Patton wrote in an email to the Star.
Khadr pleaded guilty to five war crimes in October 2010, including murder for the death of U.S. Delta Force soldier and medic Christopher Speer, in return for an eight year sentence and diplomatic agreement that Canada would recommend his transfer after one year.
Part of Khadr’s plea agreement included a provision that he would “submit to interviews whenever and wherever requested by the United States law enforcement officials, intelligence authorities, and prosecutors.”
The deal also stated that while in “U.S. custody (Khadr will) appear, cooperate and testify truly, before any grand jury, any court” or military case.
While there has been no suggestion that Khadr’s testimony is being sought, another Guantanamo captive pleaded guilty to five war crimes Wednesday in return for his cooperation prosecuting other terrorism suspects.
According to Reuters, Majid Khan, a 32-year-old Pakistani native who grew up in Baltimore and was represented by Khadr’s Pentagon lawyer Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson, will not be sentenced until 2016.
His case marks a shift in how the Obama administration will handle military cases, veteran New York lawyer Joshua Dratel told the Miami Herald, arguing that Gitmo’s “deal bank is open.”
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Jillian Berman
No comments:
Post a Comment