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Bail Decision For Former Guantanamo Bay Inmate Omar Khadr In Hands Of Edmonton Judge

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 25 Mar, 2015 10:47 AM

EDMONTON — An Edmonton judge says she needs time to decide whether a former Guantanamo Bay inmate should get bail.

A two-day hearing has concluded for Omar Khadr and the judge is to give her decision at a later date.

Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war-crimes charges, including murder, for killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when Khadr was 15.

Now 28, he is more than halfway through an eight-year sentence and is a prisoner at Bowden Institution in central Alberta.

Khadr's lawyers say he should be released while he appeals his war-crimes conviction before a U.S. military court because the process is taking too long.

Federal government lawyers argue that letting Khadr out would undermine public confidence in the justice system, subvert international law and damage Canada's relationship with the United States.

If released on bail, Khadr plans to live in Edmonton with one of his lawyers, and a university has agreed to let him enrol as a student.

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