Court Watch
the conviction against Tymoshenko. She refused to attend the appeals hearings, saying that, “seeking truth and justice in the Ukrainian courts is com- pletely futile.” Shortly thereafter, Tymoshenko was moved to a prison camp 300 miles east of Kiev, which her supporters believe to be a move to iso- late her from the press and public.
*Submitted by Justina LaSalle
Canada’s Supreme Court Denies Appeal of Abdullah Khadr’s Extradition
16
On November 3, 2011, the Supreme Court of Can- ada, the nation’s highest court, rejected the appeal from the Canadian and U.S. governments to hear the extradition case of Abdullah Khadr, who was indicted on charges of materially supporting terror- ism in the United States, but was not extradited be- cause the United States arranged for his 14-month detention in Pakistan without access to counsel or courts. The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms its two lower court holdings that the U.S. committed gross misconduct in detaining Khadr, and prevents Khadr from serving an additional sentence. This appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada was the fi- nal attempt by the Canadian and U.S. governments to extradite Khadr to the United States for charges of supplying al-Qaeda with weapons to be used against the United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Abdullah Khadr is a Canadian-born citizen and the oldest son of Ahmed Khadr, who was a devoted af- filiate of Osama bin Laden. Ahmed Khadr was killed in a 2003 attack by coalition forces and the Khadr family is still renowned for supporting al-Qaeda. In October 2004, Abdullah Khadr was captured in Pakistan for supplying explosives to be used against coalition forces. The United States paid the Pakistani intelligence to abduct and detain Khadr. He was held for 14 months in a secret Pakistani detention center. After Khadr admitted to selling weapons to al-Qaeda, arrangements were made for his release. The United States pressured Paki-
stan to continue Khadr’s detention until he could be transferred to the United States to face charges, but he was released to Canadian consular officials and returned to Canada.
In 2005, the United States government issued a warrant for Khadr’s arrest and Canadian law en- forcement detained Khadr. In February 2006, the United States officially requested for Canada to extradite Khadr. In 2006, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted Khadr on four counts relating to his 2003 procurement of weapons to al-Qaeda for the pur- pose of using those weapons against U.S. forces. The indictment consisted of sentencing Khadr to life imprisonment and a fine of $1 million USD.
In August 2010, Justice Speyer of the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Khadr should not be ex- tradited to the United States. He issued the stay explaining that although Khadr’s contradictory and self-incriminating statements to the Canadian au- thorities were enough to extradite him, however, the United States’ illegal detention of Khadr vio- lated fundamental justice by denying basic habeas corpus and due process rights, and therefore, the government would not be rewarded for its gross misconduct.
The Canadian government appealed, arguing that it was “wrong to prevent an admitted terrorist from facing trial in the United States” The Cana- dian government also argued that not extraditing Khadr would impede its relations with the United States. In May 2011, the Canadian Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling. The Canadian gov- ernment again appealed the ruling to the Canadian Supreme Court, which denied hearing the extradi- tion case without any explanation. The appeal deni- al has now exhausted and officially ended Canadian efforts to extradite Khadr to the United States.
The failure to extradite Khadr demonstrates the dis- approval of United States detention practices and lack of transparency. When the intelligence agen- cies arrange for the abduction and secret detention a foreign national in another country, it violates prin-
ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 3 » February 2012
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