OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Canada blocked on Thursday the extradition to the United States of Abdullah Khadr, a Canadian wanted by Washington on terrorist charges.
Khadr, 30, who told CBC television before being detained in Islamabad in 2004 that every Muslim dreams of being a martyr for Islam, was accused by Washington of supplying missiles to al Qaeda in Pakistan and conspiring to murder Americans abroad. His brother Omar is in prison at Guantanamo.
The Supreme Court refused on Thursday to hear an appeal - launched on behalf of the United States - of lower court decisions that had stopped proceedings for his extradition. That brings the United States to the end of the legal road in Canada.
The high court did not give a reason for its decision. But the Ontario court that first quashed his extradition had ruled that Khadr's human rights, including access to Canadian diplomatic counsel, had been unjustifiably violated after his arrest by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.
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