US: Groups Urge End to Military Commissions Case Against Child Soldier

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Human Rights Watch

US: Groups Urge End to Military Commissions Case Against Child Soldier
Omar Khadr Should be Repatriated to Canada or Tried in US Federal Court
March 12, 2010

(Washington, DC) - Three leading civil liberties, human rights, and juvenile justice organizations today issued a letter urging Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to end military commission proceedings against Omar Khadr, the Canadian national apprehended in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15-years-old.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and the Juvenile Law Center called on Holder and Gates to drop military commission charges against Khadr, and to either repatriate him to Canada or transfer him to federal court and prosecute him in accordance with international juvenile justice and fair trial standards.

"Trying Omar Khadr in a discredited military tribunal flies in the face of universally recognized standards of juvenile justice," said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's human rights program. "As a former child soldier and victim of abuse in US custody, Omar Khadr should first and foremost be a candidate for repatriation and rehabilitation, not subject to prosecution in an illegitimate system of military commission."

Khadr is slated for trial by military commission in July. The groups said that if the trial by military commission goes forward, Khadr will become the first person in decades to be tried by any western nation for war crimes allegedly committed as a child, which would undermine efforts by the Obama administration to increase international support for US counterterrorism policies.


Read more: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/12/us-groups-urge-end-military-commissions-case-against-child-soldier

[HeresyLives]

1. I wish Obama could just put him on a plane

and send him home.

Notify Harper after he's landed, and dump the hot potato in HIS lap. Harper's the one who's caused the holdup.

[RC]

2. Sounds good to me also.

Harper is a bu$h wannabe. Let him deal with his policies.

[midnight]

3. Another victim of our broken system. My gratitude goes out to all those

working in this system trying to make it better.