Thursday, October 28

Amnesty International: disturbing update from AI on Omar Khadr case

For those following this poor youth's case, things are very depressing. Forced to plead guilty to avoid spending his entire life incarcerated, he is now being treated as if he were really guilty of anything. Sadly, typical of other recent cases against Muslims, such as Syed Hashmi. Please try to take the recommended actions
Karin
The war crimes accusation should have been against the US soldier who shot Khadr several times in the back on finding him buried under debris in Afghanistan.


From a group organized to help his case:
 
Please take action re: the bolded sections below and forward to your contacts.

 

Friends:

 

As this is very much in the news this week and you may be wondering what AI Canada's response is to recent developments, here is a brief update on the Omar Khadr case. Please share it with whoever you think might be interested.

 

As you may know, Alex Neve is attending the sentencing hearings this week in Guantánamo. He is blogging on daily basis in addition to handling media work. Here are his first three posts:

 

On the eve of the Omar Khadr trial: On Top of Injustice, Uncertainty [Oct 24]

http://www.amnesty.ca/blog_post2.php?id=2172

 

The Beginning of the End for Omar Khadr? [Oct 25]

http://www.amnesty.ca/blog_post2.php?id=2167

 

Omar Khadr Sentencing Hearing: Day One [Oct 26]

http://www.amnesty.ca/blog_post2.php?id=2174

 

We also continue to campaign on the case: the guilty plea and related plea bargain are not the end of things. There has finally been an exchange of diplomatic letters between the US and Canada that reportedly allows for Omar Khadr's return to Canada to serve the majority of his sentence. However, the government still continues to state that "this is a matter between Khadr and US authorities" and says "no comment" when asked about any potential return to Canada. As a result, and pardon the bluntness, we are worried that the government will weasel out of any initial commitment they have made!  In place of our previous call to "request repatriation", we are now calling on the government to finally and truly commit to Omar Khadr's early return to Canada.

 

Here's the link to our current action: http://www.amnesty.ca/iwriteforjustice/take_action.php?actionid=367&type=Internal. It sends an email directly to Prime Minister Harper.

 

Last but not least. We issued this news release earlier this week: USA must address Omar Khadr rights violations following plea deal  http://www.amnesty.ca/blog_post2.php?id=2166

 

If you have any questions about the case or our current work, please don't hesitate to contact me.

 

Thanks,

Hilary

 

Hilary Homes

Campaigner:  International Justice, Security and Human Rights

Amnesty International Canada

hhomes@amnesty.ca    

613 744 7667 ext 247

 

Security and Counter-terrorism: check out the blog www.amnesty.ca/security and receive regular updates via Twitter http://twitter.com/AI_SecureRights

 

International Justice, Arms Trade, Child Soldiers & more: receive regular updates via Twitter http://twitter.com/AI_ArmsWarCrime

 

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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:41 pm

    Omar Khadr is a murderer. He murdered an American medic and then conveniently tried to use his Canadian citizenship. He shows no remorse for what he did even to this day. Pretty sad when then an American medic then saves his sorry ass.. The majority of Canadians don't want this guy back and his whole family in Ontario are despised. Keep him in the U.S.. Canada is too much of a patsy. He and his whole family are disgusting. Canadian citizens don't go to Afghanistan to try and kill their allies. What a joke all of this is.

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  2. Anonymous2:42 pm

    Just to add his own family has made nasty remarks about Canada yet sit there on welfare and get free healthcare. Canada should strip their citizenship and send them back to wherever they came from.

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  3. Anonymous12:58 pm

    hey 2:41 pm you are nothing but a nastey little redneck how do you know omar khadar kill that soldier let me guess oyeah because of what the have been telling ppl.
    It does not matter whether he throguh the grained because he was only 15 years old at the time which by law makes him a child soldier.

    if you love america so much why dont you live in america because ppl like you are giving canada a bad rep make love not war and dont be so fast to judge on something you know nothing about.

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  4. Anonymous3:34 pm

    hey redneck anonymous, the only way you would understand what the child Kadr went through is if it happened to you or to someone you know. Why? because deep down what shapes your thinking is a sinister double standard about "their" lives vs. "our" lives. "Their" pain is not real pain, it is fabricated and they deserve it, but "our" pain is real and we should retaliate...don't feel isolated though, there are plenty of barbarics disguised as humans, such as yourself.

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  5. Canadians should be outraged that the Canadian Government has allowed this to get this far, We all know that torture has taken place and thus any decision by any American court should be voided.

    This is a Canadian born Citizen and the message that the Canadian Government is sending is your on your own when you leave don't count on your country to assist you if you travel...

    I hope all Canadians remember that the Harper Government does not care about you and only cares about a vote for them... Remember this the Next Election

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