TORONTO — The last Western detainee held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay returned to Canada on Saturday after a decade in custody. He had been captured in Afghanistan at age 15 after being wounded in a firefight with U.S. soldiers, officials said.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said 26-year-old Omar Khadr arrived at a Canadian military base on a U.S. government plane early Saturday and was transferred to the Millhaven maximum-security prison in Bath, Ontario.
The son of an alleged al- Qaida financier, Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and was eligible to return to Canada from Guantanamo Bay last October under terms of a plea deal.
But Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government had long refused to request the return of Khadr, the youngest detainee held at Guantanamo. The reluctance was partly because of suspicions about the Khadr family, which has been called “the first family of terrorism.”
The U.S. Defense Department confirmed the transfer in a statement and said 166 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay. The statement also said Congress had been notified about the move.
The Toronto-born Khadr was captured in 2002 and has been held at the Guantanamo prison, which was set up on the U.S. naval base in Cuba to hold suspected terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He received an eight-year sentence in 2010 after being convicted of throwing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer. Khadr also admitted to a judge that he had planted 10 roadside bombs for al-Qaida.
“His head is spinning a bit, and it’s going to be a real adjustment for him, but at the same time he is so happy to be home,” John Norris, Khadr’s Canadian lawyer, said after speaking with his client.
“He can’t believe that it is finally true. He simply can’t. For very good reason he was quite fearful that the government would not follow through on its word, and he’s pinching himself right now not believing that this government has finally kept its word,” he said.
Norris said Khadr would be eligible for parole as early as the summer of 2013. He said Khadr’s return to Canada comes 10 years too late.
Toews said the U.S. government initiated Khadr’s transfer and suggested that Canada had little choice but to accept him because he is a Canadian citizen. It will be up to Canada’s national parole board to release him, Toews said.
“Omar Khadr is a known supporter of the al-Qaida terrorist network and a convicted terrorist,” Toews said.
Toews called for “robust conditions of supervision” if Khadr is granted parole. Toews said in his written decision that he reviewed all the files forwarded by the U.S. government and that the parole board should consider his concerns that Khadr “idealizes” his father and “appears to deny Ahmed Khadr’s lengthy history of terrorist action and association with al-Qaida.”
Toews also said Omar Khadr’s mother and sister “have openly applauded” his father’s “crimes and terrorist activities,” and noted that Omar Khadr has had “little contact with Canadian society and will require substantial management in order to ensure safe integration in Canada.”
“I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration,” Toews said.
Norris said it is regrettable that the minister is trying to influence the parole board.
“Most of what he has said there is simply not true. It’s part of the stereotype of Omar that this government has been disseminating from the beginning,” Norris said.
He added that once the Correctional Service “will get to know Omar” it will “recommend appropriate conditions.”
Defense attorneys have said Khadr was pushed into fighting the Americans in Afghanistan by his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an alleged al-Qaida financier whose family stayed with Osama bin Laden briefly when Omar Khadr was a boy.
The Egyptian-born father was killed in 2003 when a Pakistani military helicopter shelled the house where he was staying with senior al-Qaida operatives.
Omar Khadr’s youngest brother lives in Toronto and is paralyzed after being shot in the attack that killed his father.
Another brother was released from a Canadian jail last year after successfully fighting extradition to the U.S. on charges he supplied al-Qaida with weapons in Pakistan.
Omar Khadr was found badly wounded and near death in the rubble of a bombed-out compound in Afghanistan in 2002. His case received international attention after some dubbed him a child soldier.
The United Nations publicly criticized his prosecution, arguing that children should not be tried for war crimes.
Khadr’s family did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about his release. Norris said he told the family Saturday morning that Khadr had returned to Canada.
Norris said it’s not for him to say whether Khadr should live with his family once he’s released.
“You can’t change the fact that they are his family,” Norris said. “They love him, and I know that they’ll find a way.”
Norris said Khadr has received some education in Guantanamo Bay and hopes that will continue so that he’s able to reintegrate into the community.
Khadr has claimed in the past that he was abused at Guantanamo, but Canadian Foreign Affairs officials said they accept U.S. assurances that Khadr was treated humanely. Khadr also claimed he was abused at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where he was initially held. Humanrights groups and opposition parties in Canada have long criticized Harper’s Conservative government for not doing enough for Khadr.
Canada’s three opposition parties have long demanded that Harper’s government take Khadr home. He has received some sympathy from Canadians, largely because of his age and the abuse allegations, but his family has been widely criticized.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2010 that Canadian agents had violated Khadr’s rights by interrogating him at Guantanamo Bay.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed off on Khadr’s transfer in April.
Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, said the transfer “ends one of the ugliest chapters in the decade-long history of Guantanamo.”
He called on Canada to release Khadr.
“Canada should not perpetuate the abuse he endured in one of the world’s most notorious prisons,” he said. “Instead, Canada should release him immediately and provide him with appropriate counseling, education and assistance in transitioning to a normal life.”
Information for this article was contributed by Rob Gillies of The Associated Press; by Ernesto Londono and Julie Tate of The Washington Post; and by Ian Austen of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/30/2012