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Former Child Soldier Omar Khadr Before Military Commissions Today

Suzanne Ito,
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April 28, 2010

Today, the military commission case against former child soldier Omar Khadr will restart once again. As we've chronicled many times in the past, Khadr was 15 when he was taken into U.S. custody after a firefight in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer, as well as injuries to other soldiers. If all goes according to the government's plan, Khadr's case will go to trial this summer, the first military commission trial under President Obama.

This week's hearings will assess whether statements Khadr made while he was can be used at his trial (if it actually happens).
For Khadr, there are two other options to keeping his case in the unconstitutional military commissions system: , or if there is still uncoerced evidence against him, send his case to federal criminal court, a time-tested system that knows how to bring people to justice and give him a fair trial as former juvenile.

Jennifer Turner, who has monitored proceedings in Guantánamo before, and Khadr's specifically, is in Gitmo now as a human rights observer. She'll be blogging her thoughts on this week's proceedings.

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