Omar Khadr may be steps away from being repatriated to Canada after spending nearly a decade at the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But Yale University law professor Muneer Ahmad says that Khadr's transfer should have been affected as early as November 2011.
"As a number of news reports have made clear, there seems to be some uncertainty as to whether the hold up is on the U.S. side, on the Canadian side, or both," Ahmad told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel on Sunday.
He says that included in the terms of Khadr's 2010 plea deal was an agreement between Canada and the United States to undertake "maximum efforts" to repatriate Khadr after he served an additional year in Guantanamo.
Khadr plead guilty to a series of charges in the fall of 2010 in a military court. The charges are in connection to a series of incidents in Afghanistan almost a decade ago, including the death of American soldier Christopher Speer.
Published reports last week quoted a source close to U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as saying the U.S. would sign off on Khadr's transfer.
Khadr, now 25, could be back in Canada by the end of May.
Ahmad says the hurdles to Khadr's return should be quite minimal. "I say that because this is an issue that has been raised to the very highest levels of both governments. This is an issue that [Panetta] addressed on his visit to Ottawa last week.
"So he's very clearly aware of this. He knows this is an issue that is on his desk. There's nowhere else for it to go after that."
The steps that remain are for the U.S. to ask Canada to take Khadr back, for Canada to respond, and for the Pentagon to notify Congress of its intent to make the transfer, Ahmad says.
The Canadian Press had reported Lt.-Col. Todd Breasseale said Panetta was waiting for Ottawa to approve their end of the deal.
"It's a matter of ongoing, very sensitive discussion and consideration that involves everything from public safety to diplomacy," Breasseale told CP.
On Wednesday, Khadr's Canadian lawyer told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel his client is "anxious" to return to Canada, and he won't know which corrections facility Khadr will go to until he is back on Canadian soil.
His U.S. military lawyer told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel last week that his client is skeptical he'd be returning to Canada soon.
Khadr was 15 at the time he admits throwing a grenade that killed Sergeant Speer. He plead guilty to murder, attempted murder, supporting terrorism, spying and conspiracy.
Authorities have long kept a close eye on the Khadr family and its ties to al Qaeda. Khadr's late father was a close associate of the now-dead Osama Bin Laden.
Last November, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected an appeal that effectively blocked Khadr's brother Abdullah, from being extradited to the U.S. The U.S. had wanted to put the elder Khadr brother on trial in a terrorism case.
