Canada only hope for justice for accused terrorist Khadr, says U.S. lawyer

Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler told a parliamentary committee Tuesday the tribunal process is stacked against defendants and designed to ensure convictions.

"Given the nature of these proceedings, given the very prejudicial nature of the evidence that I anticipate will be introduced against him at trial ... I believe he will be convicted and I believe he will receive an adult sentence," said Kuebler.

"I believe that he will receive a life sentence or something very close to it."

Khadr's only hope for real justice is for Ottawa to demand his repatriation to Canada, where he could be dealt with by a legal system that guarantees due process, said Kuebler.

The 21-year-old Khadr, currently held at the American naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, is slated to face trial later this year for allegedly lobbing a hand grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in a firefights in Afghanistan in 2002.

He was 15 at the time, but under the military tribunal system he will be tried under the same rules as an adult - a move critics say violates international law on the treatment of so-called child soldiers.

The Conservative government, which has repeatedly refused to intervene in the case, showed no sign of changing its mind in response to Kuebler's pleas Tuesday.

Tory MP Jason Kenney described the military tribunal system as a legal one under U.S. law and expressed skepticism about the alternative of bringing Khadr before the courts in Canada.

There's simply no legal mechanism for doing that, Kenney maintained.

"He didn't commit a crime in Canada. He didn't kill a Canadian abroad. What would trigger any treatment of him under the Canadian justice system if he were to be transferred here?"

Kenney, a frequent Tory spokesman on human-rights issues, has played a key role in efforts to repatriate Brenda Martin from a Mexican prison. But he denied the government is setting a double standard by not pressing for Khadr's return.

"It's not an analogous situation," Kenney said after the committee hearing. "Ms. Martin has been convicted of a crime in a foreign country following a judicial proceeding (and) we're now seeking her penal transfer. That's not true of Mr. Khadr."

Kuebler, for his part, attributed the reluctance of Ottawa to intervene in the case to the unpopularity of the Khadr family. Deceased patriarch Ahmed was a senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, and other family members have expressed sympathy for al-Qaida.

But that's not reason for convicting Omar on flimsy evidence, said Kuebler.

"Ahmed Khadr is dead, and the son should not go on being punished for the sins of the father ... Omar is not one of our enemies in the war on terror, he is a fellow victim."

Evidence disclosed in pre-trial proceedings in the U.S. has raised doubts about the credibility of initial claims that Khadr tossed the grenade in the fatal firefights, said Kuebler.

But he suggested the young man could face prosecution under juvenile justice rules in a Canadian court based on his other activities in Afghanistan.

Outside the hearing room, Kuebler conceded it's also possible Canadian prosecutors would decide there's not enough evidence to lay charges of any kind. But that would simply be part of the normal course of justice, he said.

"What we're asking for is a process, not a predetermined outcome. A predetermined outcome is what Guantanamo Bay gives you."

Khadr is the last citizen of a western democracy to be held at Guantanamo after other countries, including Australia and Britain, successfully appealed to U.S. authorities to repatriate their citizens.

One suspect was subsequently convicted in Australia, while prosecutors in the U.K. concluded there wasn't enough evidence to lay terrorism charges there.