OTTAWA – Omar Khadr, the Canadian terror suspect detained at Guantanamo Bay, has fired his American lawyers, throwing into limbo his upcoming trial before a U.S. military commission.
Barry Coburn, one of Khadr’s U.S. lawyers, confirmed Wednesday that the 23-year-old recently fired the pair of lawyers representing him from the firm Coburn and Coffman, as well as the U.S. military lawyer appointed to represent him in Guantanamo Bay.
"We are all devastated by this. You know, we just could not be more upset. We were working so hard and had so much planned," Coburn told Canwest News Service.
It now remains to be seen if Khadr will represent himself at pre-trial hearings scheduled to resume next Monday in Guantanamo, or whether he will boycott the hearings entirely.
The Toronto-born Khadr faces five charges under the Military Commissions Act, the most serious being murder as a war crime for allegedly lobbing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic.
Khadr has been in U.S. custody since his July 2002 capture – when he was 15 – by American forces following a shootout with al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan. He is the only Western national still held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
His full trial before a military court is set to begin in August.
Meanwhile, on Monday, a Federal Court judge gave the Canadian government a seven-day deadline to provide a list of remedies that will address violations of Khadr’s constitutional rights, based on an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.
The top court ruled in January that Canada breached international human rights obligations when Canadian officials interrogated Khadr in 2003-2004 knowing that he had been subjected to a sleep deprivation program and had no legal counsel present.
The government’s long-standing position has been that Khadr faces serious charges and Canada must let the U.S. justice process run its course.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.