Omar Khadr appeared in Alberta Court of Appeal today. His lawyer Dennis Edney wants him to be released from a federal prison because he was a juvenile. The federal lawyers claim adult sentences for four of the five crimes where the US accused him of as a 15-year-old and where he had to plead guilty to, in a Guantanamo military court in 2010. (A court that is internationally not recognized.)

“Federal lawyer Bruce Hughson told the appeal court judges that Khadr was given a sentence of five concurrent eight-year terms for each conviction by the U.S. military. Four of those five convictions are adult sentences, therefore he should stay in the federal system.
Both Chief Justice Catherine Fraser and Appeal Court Justice Jack Watson repeatedly challenged that view, noting that expert evidence shows that the U.S. military commission did not hand out separate sentences for each crime but only a single “global” sentence.”

read more here:

• Sheila Pratt, Edmonton Journal: Alberta Court of Appeal reserves judgment on Khadr’s incarceration case,
• CBC News: Alta. court delays ruling on Omar Khadr appeal.

Looks like the federal lawyers were left making stuff up to explain why Omar was put in a maximum federal penitentiary.

Video by Richard Brinkman