Judges dismisses charges against Canadian Guantanamo detainee
A military judge at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base today dismissed charges against Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, saying the matter is outside the jurisdiction of the military tribunal system.
The stunning ruling by Army Colonel Peter Brownback came just minutes into Khadr’s arraignment, in which he faced charges he committed murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying.
Khadr had been classified as an “enemy combatant” by a military panel years earlier at Guantanamo Bay, but because he was not classified as an “alien unlawful enemy combatant”, Brownback said he had no choice but to throw the case out.
The Military Commissions Act, signed by US President George Bush last year after the US Supreme Court threw out the previous war-crimes trial system, says specifically that only those classified as “unlawful” enemy combatants can face war trials there.
