The military defence lawyer for Omar Khadr says newly-released information suggests that the U.S. soldier the imprisoned Canadian is accused of killing with a grenade, may have been a friendly-fire victim.
Lt. Cmdr William Kuebler told Â鶹´«Ã½net that during the discovery process of Khadr's legal proceedings, the U.S. government released interviews from American soldiers who said they were lobbing grenades into the compound where army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer was killed in July 2002.
The U.S. government insists that it was Khadr, who was 15 at the time and in the compound, who threw the grenade. Khadr is being held in Guantanamo Bay awaiting a war crimes trial.
But Khadr's lawyer says that the government's case is becoming weaker by the day.
"As the process unfolds, we are learning the government's case against Khadr gets weaker and weaker," Kuebler said. "It departs from the mythical account that was originally sold to the Canadian government and public that Omar Khadr must have been guilty of throwing a hand grenade because he was found alive in the compound . . . (as) today we learned that U.S. soldiers were throwing hand grenades into that compound."
"Given the fact there were no eyewitnesses to Khadr throwing a hand grenade (friendly-fire) is yet another possibility."
The chief prosecutor for the tribunals, army Col. Lawrence Morris, declined to discuss the defence theory in detail, but added, "I am quite confident that assertion will be proved groundless should it be raised in court.''
Kuebler said it was also a possibility that someone in the compound other than Khadr threw the hand grenade.
In light of the new information, Kuebler said that the Canadian government should push to extradite Khadr and try him under the Canadian legal system, as other western nations have done with citizens imprisoned in Guantanamo.
"The myth sold to the Canadian government to justify its inaction in the Khadr case over the years is completely false and contrary to reality," he said.
Khadr's condition improving
Kuebler said he met with Khadr several times this week and his mental condition seems to be improving.
"Khadr is better mentally then he was a year ago," he said. "He's a young man who identifies strongly with Canada and wants nothing more than to get out of Guantanamo Bay, get an education, a job and get on with life as best he can."
"He has high hopes right now ... that the Canadian government may soon do something similar to the approach taken by every other country (and try him under their own law.)"
Kuebler said that he believes that mounting support for Khadr in the Canadian public as well as pressure from the opposition parties, will soon force the Conservatives into pressuring the U.S. on the case.
No trial date has been set for Khadr and Kuebler said that the government continues to withhold information on the case, making the process longer.
"Our hope is that Canada will demand Khadr's release."
Khadr has been held at the Guantanamo compound since late 2002. He was shot, along with another suspect in the killing of the U.S. soldier, when U.S. special forces raided the compound after a four-hour aerial bombardment.
The other suspect died.
