OTTAWA - Amnesty International says the government is keeping Federal Court from determing whether Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are handing over prisoners to face possible torture by local authorities.
The human rights group filed a case in February claiming Canada was violating its own Charter of Rights by failing to safeguard the prisoners from mistreatment.
But eight months later, government lawyers are still arguing that Amnesty has no legal standing to bring the case and insisting it should be thrown out of court.
Paul Champ, the lawyer representing Amnesty, is urging the court to reject the procedural and technical objections and clear the way for both sides to get on to the human rights issues at the heart of the case.
The government admitted last spring that it was investigating a half-dozen allegations of serious mistreatment of prisoners after they were handed over to Afghan authorities.
Ottawa says it has since put new rules in place to monitor what happens to detainees once they're transferred out of Canadian jurisdiction.
