The Untold Story Of Omar Khadr - documentary (80 min.)
Source Trailer: Toronto Film Festival 2015
Directors: Patrick Reed, Michelle Shephard
Cast: Omar Khadr
Omar Khadr is finally free, though on strict bail conditions while an appeal of his US military commission conviction is underway. He has been behind bars for the last 13 years, without any evidence of guilt. Many human rights issues in the case remain unresolved.
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a short history
- Omar (now 28) was born in Toronto.
- In his youth, the family moved back and forth between Canada and Afghanistan, where his father worked as an aid worker,
- July 27, 2002, the house where his father had left Omar as a translator, was heavily bombed by U.S. forces. When found, barely alive under rubble, shot in the back and captured.
- Months of brutal interrogations and torture followed during his captivity in Bagram. Fifteen-year-old Omar was falsely accused and forced to confess to the killing of a U.S. soldier who fell during the battle.
- October 2002, just 16, he was sent to Guantanamo, where he spent the next decade - often in solitary confinement.
- October 30, 2010, he was forced to plead guilty before a U.S. military commission in Guantanamo. He knew his only chance of getting out there was to ‘confess’. The Guantanamo paradox: you had to lose to win. Those lucky enough to get charged and convicted got out.
- The “crimes” he had to plead guilty to did not exist under Canadian, U.S. or international law. The Guantanamo court is no real court as it is not internationally recognized.
- September 26, 2012, he was repatriated to Canada and placed in a maximum security prison.
- May 7, 2015, after almost 13 years of wrongful imprisonment, he was finally released on bail, pending the appeal of his Guantanamo ‘conviction’.
Excerpt from Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows - the 40 min. version of the documentary.
