JURIST - Paper Chase: US military judge orders disclosure of US-Canada correspondence on Khadr

[JURIST] A US military judge ruled Thursday that some correspondence between the US and Canadian government officials regarding Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] must be turned over to Khadr's defense team. Prosecutors argued that they had found no such correspondence in US State Department records, but military judge Army Colonel Peter Brownback ordered that they conduct another search. The defense made over a dozen discovery motions on Thursday, including requests for statements made by Khadr shortly after his initial 2002 arrest and the deposition of a military officer who wrote two reports on the skirmish in which Khadr was captured. Brownback is expected to rule on some motions Friday. The Globe and Mail has more.

Khadr, now 21, faces life imprisonment after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed one US soldier and wounded another while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2002. He was charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in April 2007 with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, as well as spying. Defense lawyers, a UN representative [JURIST reports], and rights groups have said if the US proceeds with the military trial, the US will be in violation of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [text], which gives special protection to children under 18 involved in armed conflicts.

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