Teen Detainee Boycotts His War Crimes Trial
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Canadian teenager Omar Khadr refused Wednesday to participate in the war crimes case against him, in protest of being moved to what was described as solitary confinement.
The military tribunal's presiding officer, Col. Robert S. Chester, put off a defense motion seeking Khadr's return to the least restrictive holding facility, but he did agree to consider hearing testimony on the highly secretive detention procedures.
Khadr and nine other detainees being charged in a military tribunal at the U.S. naval base were reportedly transferred to the facility's maximum-security camp.
Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan, read a handwritten note saying he was being punished unfairly after cooperating with his captors. Khadr, now 19, is accused of taking part in a firefight that killed a U.S. Special Forces medic.
Defense lawyers and human rights observers said the 10 detainees were moved before dawn on March 30 to the maximumsecurity Camp 5.
"He's been transferred from what we believe is the best facility here to the worst," said American University law professor Muneer Ahmad, Khadr's civilian defense counsel. He said his client had been in medium-security Camp 4, where detainees with the best behavior records were accorded "comfort items" like books, games and shoes.
Fewer than half of Guantanamo's 490 prisoners are believed to be at Camp 4, which has a sports yard, communal meals and barracks.
A halt to the practice of pulling prisoners from the general population ahead of court appearances or meetings with counsel was ordered by U.S. District Judge James Robertson in November 2004, when he ruled that the U.S. military tribunal was unconstitutional in its denial of due process to defendants.
Guantanamo officials confirmed that "most" of the 10 men charged so far with war crimes had been moved to the newest and most secure of its facilities.
"Consistent with Army regulations, individuals in a pretrial status are separated from the general population. These measures are largely for the protection of the detainee," said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, spokesman for the prison network.
Durand disputed the defense's description of conditions in Camp 5 as solitary confinement.
"Detainees in Camp 5 live in a normal prison setting, each in a cell in a wing that houses multiple other detainees," Durand said.
