Yesterday, Canadian detainee Omar Khadr pled guilty to all five charges against him, in an 11th-hour plea deal that averted the scheduled resumption of his military commission trial. Imprisoned since his capture in Afghanistan at age 15, Khadr has spent a third of his life in U.S. detention.
If Khadr鈥檚 trial had gone forward, it would have been the first military commission trial under Obama and only the second contested trial since Bush created the Guant谩namo military commissions. Khadr鈥檚 conviction brings the total number of convictions in the military commissions to five, three of which were obtained through plea deals. It is not a track record to applaud: only five convictions in nearly nine years. In that time, over 400 defendants have been convicted of terrorism-related offenses in federal court.
After Khadr鈥檚 lawyer announced the guilty plea yesterday, the military judge asked Khadr a battery of questions about whether he understood the offenses he was admitting he had committed, going through the elements of each in rapid-fire legalese. Bearded and wearing a dark pinstriped suit, the 24-year-old toyed with his microphone and whispered 鈥測es鈥� to each of the judge鈥檚 questions. Khadr鈥檚 Canadian lawyer leaned over and appeared to be showing him a written script whenever it came time for him to answer the judge.
As part of the script, Khadr admitted that he shot and killed two Afghan soldiers who were killed in the firefight in which he was was the only captured survivor. Prosecutors have never introduced, or even claimed that they have, evidence to suggest that Khadr was responsible for the Afghan soldiers鈥� deaths. In July, Khadr rejected a previous secret plea deal because, he said, he wouldn鈥檛 admit to crimes he didn鈥檛 commit. It seems that yesterday he even admitted to a crime he was not accused of committing. Khadr also pled guilty to throwing the grenade that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer in the same firefight, an allegation that has been a part of the case all along.
Khadr pled guilty in exchange for a set sentence that will be made public after a jury of military officers 鈥� who don鈥檛 know the terms of the plea deal 鈥� sentences him. Khadr will serve whichever sentence is shorter, either the one under the plea agreement, or the one the jury sets. We do know that under his plea agreement, Khadr will serve one year more at Gitmo, on top of the eight he鈥檚 already served, then he can apply to serve out the rest of his sentence (rumored to be seven more years) in Canada. Starting today, the jury will hear victim testimony and mitigating evidence, in a sentencing hearing that may just be for show.
As part of his plea deal, Khadr waived his right to appeal. He also waived his right to sue the U.S. government for his abuse and detention at Guant谩namo, and agreed to be interrogated by the U.S. government at any time over the year he remains in U.S. custody.
By agreeing to the plea deal, prosecutors avoided the years of legal appeals that can be expected in any military commissions case. In particular, prosecutors avoided having the military appellate court decide whether the invented war crimes Khadr is convicted of committing are illegal since they aren鈥檛 actually war crimes. (All five of the charges to which Khadr pled guilty yesterday鈥攂attlefield murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, material support for terrorism, and spying鈥攁re not war crimes under the laws of war. They were made up just for the Gitmo military commissions.)
Khadr鈥檚 Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, , 鈥淗e had to make a hellish decision. And he had to make it on his own to get out of Guant谩namo Bay.鈥�
Faced with an unfair system designed to produce convictions, not justice, it seems the only reliable way for Khadr to end his Guant谩namo and military commissions nightmare was to plead guilty.
(Cross-posted to and .)
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Free Speech
National Security
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
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VirginiaDec 2024
National Security
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Our client, Nizar Trabelsi, is in the United States against his will. The federal government brought him here from Belgium more than a decade ago and charged him with terrorism-related crimes. At trial, the government鈥檚 case failed: a federal jury found Mr. Trabelsi not guilty. But instead of allowing Mr. Trabelsi to return to Belgium after his acquittal, the United States placed him in highly restrictive immigration detention and began an ongoing effort to force him to Tunisia, where he was born and where he will very likely be tortured. Mr. Trabelsi鈥檚 detention violates the Constitution, immigration law, and the extradition treaty between the United States and Belgium. Through this lawsuit, he seeks to return to Belgium, and he demands an immediate improvement of his detention conditions. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
Immigrants' Rights
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