Judge Delays Omar Khadr War Crimes Trial

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
MiamiHerald.com
September 11, 2008
By Carol Rosenberg
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Canadian captive Omar Khadr's terror trial won't [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]go[/FONT] forward as scheduled on Oct. 8, a military judge said Thursday. He did not set a new trial date.
Army Col. Patrick Parrish disclosed the delay in pretrial hearings while attorneys at the war court argued over what evidence would be available to the defense at trial.
At issue, in part, is whether the judge will order the government to fund and authorize independent mental health experts working for the defense to meet with Khadr at the prison camps.
A military panel, including an Army psychiatrist, certified Khadr competent to stand trial. But Khadr refused to cooperate with the team, in part because they were American military officers.
Khadr, who turns 22 next week, is accused of throwing a grenade in a July 2002 firefight in Khost, Afghanistan, that killed a U.S. commando while American forces were assaulting a suspected al Qaeda compound. Conviction could carry a life sentence.
Khadr was 15 at the time and claims he was treated brutally in U.S. custody. His lawyers have also asked that he be given different treatment as a ''child soldier,'' a designation the Pentagon has so far spurned.
Parrish, who had initially set the Oct. 8 trial date, appeared sympathetic to a defense request to get mental health experts to help evaluate the detainee.
The delay means that Khadr is unlikely to go to trial before November.
Now, according to the war court calendar, the next Guantánamo captive up for trial is Ali Hamza al Bahlul, 39.
Bahlul, a Yemeni, is accused of supporting terror as Osama bin Laden's media secretary and by producing al Qaeda ``propaganda products.''
Bahlul's judge, Air Force Col. Ronald Gregory, has set his trial for Oct. 27. Conviction could carry life in prison.
Lawyers want a retired Army brigadier general, who is a psychiatrist, and a New York psychologist, who has worked with victims of torture, to meet with Khadr with an eye toward mitigating factors at trial.
''The evidence suggests that the accused was involved in an incident in 2002, was severely injured, has been held in custody since then and was 15 years old at the time of the alleged offenses,'' the judge said.
''I think those circumstances alone merit some consideration about assistance. These are a fairly unusual set of circumstances that you don't find in the other cases.'' Moreover, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler said this week that the Canadian has refused to speak with his attorneys and wants ``expert assistance to help bridge that gap.''
Khadr, now six-foot-two with a full beard, has grown to adulthood behind the razor wire of Camp Delta and appeared oblivious to the proceedings around him Thursday as he sat in the tribunal chamber.
He thumbed through a copy of National Geographic in the lap of his white prison camp uniform while a Marine prosecuting the case, Maj. Jeffrey Groharing, urged the judge to refuse any independent mental health consultants.
The Marine noted the date, Sept. 11, and said authorizing the $25,000 in U.S. funds for the consultants would support ``the argument that 15-year-old terrorists can murder with impunity.''
Khadr also did not react when his lawyer, Kuebler, described allegations that the Canadian was raised by ''religious fanatics'' and ``sent into war as a 15-year-old boy, was bombed, was shot, and suffered head wounds.''
The Pentagon has for years resisted requests from Khadr's lawyers for mental health evaluation and assistance.
In the just completed tribunal of Osama bin Laden's driver, however, a Navy defense lawyer had for years secured Pentagon funding to have a private California-based psychiatrist as a consultant.
 
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