Omar Khadr

Omar Khadr
Khadr at the age of 14
Born	Omar Ahmed Khadr (1986-09-19) September 19, 1986 (age 30) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Detained at	Bagram Air Base, age 15–16. Guantanamo Bay, age 16–26. Millhaven Institution (September 28, 2012 – May 28, 2013) Edmonton Institution (May 28, 2013 – February 2014) Bowden Institution (February 2014 – May 2015)
Charge(s)	Five charges of war crimes, terrorism including killing an American soldier and providing material support for terrorism
Penalty	Eight additional years confinement (parole eligibility in mid-2013)
Status	Pleaded guilty after 10 years detention without trial; out on bail with conditions
Parents	Ahmed Khadr Maha el-Samnah

Bagram Air Base, age 15–16. Guantanamo Bay, age 16–26. Millhaven Institution (September 28, 2012 – May 28, 2013) Edmonton Institution (May 28, 2013 – February 2014)

Omar Ahmed Sayid Khadr (born September 19, 1986) is a Canadian who was detained at Guantanamo Bay as a minor and held there for 10 years. In a firefight during the United States invasion of Afghanistan on July 27, 2002, in the village of Ayub Kheyl, in which several Taliban fighters were killed, Khadr, not yet 16, was severely wounded. After being detained at Bagram, he was sent to Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. During his detention, he was interrogated by Canadian as well as US intelligence officers. He was imprisoned for throwing a grenade during the firefight that resulted in the death of an American soldier. At the time, he was 15 years old and had been brought to Afghanistan by his father, who was affiliated with an extreme religious group.

He pleaded guilty to murder and several war crimes in October 2010 at a hearing by a United States military commission. He was the youngest prisoner and last Western citizen to be held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. He accepted an eight-year sentence, not including time served, with the possibility of a transfer to Canada after at least one year to serve the remainder of the sentence. Khadr was the first person since World War II to be prosecuted in a military commission for war crimes committed while still a minor. His conviction and sentence were widely denounced by civil rights groups and various newspaper editorials. His prosecution and imprisonment was condemned by the United Nations, which has taken up the issue of child soldiers.

On September 29, 2012, Khadr was repatriated to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence in Canadian custody. He was initially assigned to a maximum-security prison but moved to a medium-security prison in 2014. Khadr was released on bail in May 2015 (pending an appeal of his U.S. conviction) after the Alberta Court of Appeal refused to block his release as had been requested by the Canadian government.

In 2013, Khadr filed a C$20,000,000 amended civil suit against the government of Canada for conspiring with the U.S. in abusing his rights. He said he had signed the plea agreement because he believed it was the only way he could gain transfer from Guantanamo, and claimed that he had no memory of the firefight in which he was wounded. Khadr's lawyers successfully challenged his incarceration in Canada as an adult offender. On May 14, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the federal government's position, ruling that Khadr had clearly been sentenced by the U.S. military tribunal as a minor. If he loses his appeal of the US conviction, underway in a separate action, he would serve any remaining time in a provincial facility rather than in a federal penitentiary.