JURIST - Paper Chase: Khadr hearing going ahead after Supreme Court ruling: US military judge

[JURIST] A US military commission pre-trial hearing for Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] will go ahead Wednesday as planned notwithstanding Thursday's Supreme Court ruling on detainee habeas rights [JURIST report], military judge Col. Patrick Parrish ruled Friday. Khadr defense attorney Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler had requested additional time to study the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision on Khadr’s status. Parrish's ruling is not publicly available. In the consolidated cases of Boumediene v. Bush and Al-Odah v. United States [Duke Law backgrounder] the court ruled that federal courts have jurisdiction to review habeas corpus petitions filed by Guantanamo detainees who have been classified as "enemy combatants." The ruling has already case doubt on the future of the military commission process, although Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday that military commission trials of detainees would continue, emphasizing that the ruling addressed procedural issues in the Guantanamo legal process rather than the detentions themselves.

Khadr, 21, faces life imprisonment for crimes 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. AP has more.

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