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Groups urge end to military commissions case against child soldier
Three leading civil liberties, human rights, and juvenile justice organizations today issued a letter urging Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to end military commission proceedings against Omar Khadr, the Canadian national apprehended in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15-years-old.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and the Juvenile Law Center called on Holder and Gates to drop military commission charges against Khadr, and to either repatriate him to Canada or transfer him to federal court and prosecute him in accordance with international juvenile justice and fair trial standards.
"Trying Omar Khadr in a discredited military tribunal flies in the face of universally recognized standards of juvenile justice," said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's human rights program. "As a former child soldier and victim of abuse in US custody, Omar Khadr should first and foremost be a candidate for repatriation and rehabilitation, not subject to prosecution in an illegitimate system of military commission."