Judge Dismisses Charges Against Canadian Guantanamo Detainee

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AP) – A military judge on Monday dismissed charges against Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, saying the matter is outside the jurisdiction of the new military tribunal system.

The stunning ruling by army Col. Peter Brownback came just minutes into Khadr’s arraignment, in which he faced charges that he committed murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying.

“The charges are dismissed without prejudice,” Brownback pronounced as he adjourned the proceeding.

Khadr had been classified as an “enemy combatant” by a military panel years earlier at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, but because he was not classified as an “alien unlawful enemy combatant,” Brownback said he had no choice but to throw the case out.

The Military Commissions Act, signed by President George W. Bush last year after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the previous war-crimes trial system, says specifically that only those classified as “unlawful” enemy combatants can face war trials here.

Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan after a firefight in 2002 in which he was wounded and allegedly killed a U.S. soldier with a grenade. He appeared in the courtroom with a beard and wearing an olive-green prison uniform.

The dismissal of the charges does not mean he will be freed from Guantanamo. Only three of the roughly 380 men held at this isolated military base on suspicion of links to the Taliban and al-Qaida have been charged under the new military tribunal system.