The first Guantanamo trial of Barack Obama's presidency opened Tuesday with Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, who was captured by US troops in Afghanistan at age 15, facing a military tribunal.
Khadr appeared in the court room dressed in western clothing and a tie, as deliberations began in choosing a jury of military officers to hear the case of the 23-year-old who has spent more than a third of his life under US detention.
Khadr's US military lawyer Jon Jackson and military prosecutors will interview 15 officers before selecting at least five for the jury in the trial, which is expected to last at least three weeks at the US naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba.
Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier during a July 2002 battle in Afghanistan. Khadr himself was seriously wounded and lost vision in his left eye.
He is the last remaining Westerner at Guantanamo and the only detainee charged with murder, and he is alleged to have been trained by Al-Qaeda and joined a network organized by Osama bin Laden to make bombs.
Canada has not requested the young man's return, preferring to allow the US trial to run its course.
"It's very clear that the government of the US and the government of Canada have decided not to intervene in this case and therefore we are going to see the first case of a child soldier in modern history," Jackson said prior to the trial.
Khadr has so far refused Washington's offer of 30-years in prison -- including 25 in Canada -- in exchange for a guilty plea.
On Monday Jackson sought the withdrawal of Khadr's statements he made at Bagram air base and at Guantanamo, insisting they were made under duress.
"Without question, Mr. Khadr was exposed to degrading treatment and threat of death," he told military judge Patrick Parrish.
But Parrish ruled in a pre-trial hearing that Khadr's alleged confessions can be heard, angering Khadr's defense team which labeled the decision "disgraceful."
Khadr's is among two cases to be heard this week. The other is the sentencing of Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, 50, a former bin Laden bodyguard who pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to provide material support to terrorism.
The cases are the first to be heard since the tribunals, created by former president George W. Bush, were revamped last year by the Obama administration and Congress to give greater rights to defendants.
Copyright 2010 AFP American Edition
