OTTAWA — The US government is quietly seeking a way to repatriate the youngest Guantanamo inmate, Canadian Omar Khadr, local media said Monday.
"They don't have the stomach to try a child for war crimes," a source with knowledge of the matter told the Canwest newspaper group.
US forces in Afghanistan took Khadr prisoner when he was just 15 years old in July 2002. He was later charged with war crimes for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier.
The last Westerner at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Khadr has been held at the controversial detention center for the past seven years, and is scheduled to face a US military trial in July.
Canadian officials have repeatedly insisted they would wait until the United States has dealt with the serious charges against Khadr before making any request for his repatriation.
"There are political repercussions" if Khadr is not prosecuted, the source told Canwest. So US administration officials are "looking for a Canadian" outreach, the official added.
In a slight softening of its position, Ottawa asked the United States last month to avoid using shared evidence to prosecute Khadr after Canada's top court ruled Canadian officials had violated his rights by sharing his statements to them with Washington.
In its decision, the high court pointed to three instances in 2003 and 2004 when Canadian foreign affairs and spy agency officials interrogated Khadr at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, in one case after he had been deprived of sleep to make him more inclined to talk.
The extracted statements shared with US authorities could "prove inculpatory in upcoming proceedings against him," it said.
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