On Omar Khadr’s 29th Birthday, Bail Conditions Eased; Allowed to Visit Grandparents, and Electronic Tag Removed

Today (September 19) is the 29th birthday of former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr, and it is, I think, fair to say that it will be his best birthday since before he was seized by US forces after a firefight in Afghanistan, where he had been taken by his father, in July 2002, when he was just 15 years old. Treated brutally in US custody, he ended up agreeing to a plea deal in a trial by military commission, in October 2010, just to get out of Guantánamo and to return home. As a result of his plea deal, he received an eight-year sentence, with one year to be served in Guantánamo, and the rest in Canada.

In the end, the Canadian government — which has persistently violated his rights, and unconditionally backed the US in its outrageous treatment of a juvenile prisoner, who was supposed to be rehabilitated rather then punished — dragged its heels securing his return, which eventually took place in September 2012. He was then — unfairly and unjustly — imprisoned in a maximum-security prison until that decision was eventually overturned, and in May a judge granted him bail, pending the outcome of an appeal against his conviction in the US.

So this birthday — the one I expect he will be enjoying to the full — is the first he has spent in freedom since his 15th birthday, back in 2001, and yesterday he received some good news regarding the restrictions under which he was granted bail back in May that can only be adding to his enjoyment today.

Two weeks ago, as I described it, he “asked a Canadian court to ease his bail conditions, so he can fly to Toronto to visit his family, attend a night course at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), and get to early morning prayers,” and last week Justice June Ross of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta agreed to relax his curfew to allow him to attend night classes and early morning prayers, reserving judgment on his other request until this week. On Friday (September 18), as hoped, his bail conditions have been eased still further. As the Edmonton Journal reported, Justice Ross said that he “can travel to visit his grandparents in Toronto for two weeks this fall.” In addition, his electronic tag will be removed.

As the Toronto Star described, Justice Ross “said it is important that some restrictions remain, to ensure Khadr doesn’t have terrorist associations. But she added that he has complied with all conditions since he was released four months ago, and a gradual release into the community ‘is the best way to ensure he doesn’t pose a danger to the public.'” She added, “There is no reason why he should not have a visit with his family.”

For the Toronto visit, as the Edmonton Journal put it, he must travel with Dennis Edney, his lawyer for many years, in whose house he is living, and is also required to “stay with his maternal grandparents or his Toronto lawyer John Philipps, provide a phone number and address, and report to his bail supervisor.” In a sign of how micro-managed his freedoms are, despite these concessions, he “will be allowed to speak to his maternal grandparents in a language other than English, but not his controversial mother or sister Zaynab, both of whom now live outside Canada. Three brothers and one other sister live in Toronto.”

The Toronto Star noted, however, that it is not clear whether Omar is allowed to fly.

His other long-term lawyer, Nathan Whitling, said he was “trying to determine whether Khadr is on Canada’s no-fly list,” adding that if he “can’t take a plane over four provinces, he may not go.”

“We’re not 100-per-cent sure yet,” Whitling said after the judge had amended Khadr’s bail conditions, and a spokesman for Public Safety Canada “said he cannot reveal names on the Specified Persons List.” The Toronto Star added, “The federal Passenger Protect Program supplies airlines with a list of people considered a threat to civil aviation. An advisory panel that includes representatives of the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police], Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Canada Border Services Agency and Justice and Transport departments recommend names.” The Public Safety Minister, Steven Blaney, who “has repeatedly described Khadr as a hardened terrorist who should be serving his full sentence behind bars,” has “the final say on who is put on the list.”

Amending Omar’s bail conditions, Justice Ross accepted that the electronic ankle bracelet was “an unusual condition for bail and a ‘significant restriction on his liberty and person privacy’ and so should be removed.” She added, as the Edmonton Journal put it, “Police can fund other ‘commonly used’ measures to ensure he is obeying his curfew, such as personal visits” to Edney’s home, “and installing a land-line telephone.”

In addition, Omar’s computer use “will still be monitored,” but Justice Ross “ordered the removal of a remote monitoring program that is causing problems in operation of the home computer and a new laptop Khadr purchased in June.” She also said that the justice system had “confirmed it will not provide technical support to Khadr to deal with those problems. So the software will be removed and police can find a ‘low-tech’ way to monitor the sites he visits.”

Furthermore, as part of the process of “ensur[ing] he does not come into contact with extremist views, Khadr must continue to live with the Edneys and abide by a midnight to five a.m. curfew. He must also inform his bail supervisor of any overnight visits with friends within the province.”

Omar said he was “pleased” with the relaxed conditions and was “keen to go swimming and play soccer” as soon as the tag was removed.

Note: Last week, “Guantánamo’s Child,” a documentary film about Omar, directed by Patrick Reed and Michelle Shephard, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. See this article, and also see this interview with Michelle Shephard.

Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose debut album, ‘Love and War,’ was released in July 2015). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign, the co-director of We Stand With Shaker, calling for the immediate release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press in the US, and available from Amazon, including a Kindle edition — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).

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