EDMONTON — A lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr says his client's appeal in the United States is taking too long and he should be released on bail.
Nathan Whitling (WHIHT'-ling) is asking an Edmonton judge to grant the 28-year-old Khadr bail while he appeals his war-crimes conviction before a U.S. military court.
Whitling says Khadr has a right to seek bail just like every other prisoner in Canada.
If released, Khadr plans to live in Edmonton with one of his other lawyers, and a university has agreed he can enrol there as a student.
The federal government is arguing that a Canadian court doesn't have the jurisdiction to grant bail on a foreign sentence.
It also says allowing Khadr out would subvert international law and damage Canada's relationship with the United States.
Khadr is more than half-way through an eight-year sentence that he is serving at Bowden Institution in central Alberta.
He admitted to five war crimes committed when he was a 15-year-old in Afghanistan in July 2002, but has said he only pleaded guilty to get out of Guantanamo.
