Title
Canadian Becomes First Child Soldier Since Nuremberg To Stand Trial For War Crimes
Link
Canadian becomes first child soldier since Nuremberg to stand trial for war crimes - Americas, World - The Independent
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Excerpt
An inmate at the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba is set to be the first child soldier to go on trial for war crimes since Nuremberg, after a military judge ruled that there were no legal obstacles preventing the camp’s special military commissions from prosecuting him.
Omar Khadr, a Canadian national, was 15 at the time of his alleged crimes. His defence team said his age should see him treated as a victim and rehabilitated, rather than prosecuted as a war criminal. He has had no access to education while at Guantanamo, where he has spent more than a quarter of his life.
But in a brief ruling which has now been made public, the military judge Peter Brownback rejected the plea, paving the way for trial and a new chapter in Guantanamo’s history. He said international laws dealing with the treatment of child soldiers were “interesting as a matter of policy”, but they did not prevent the military commission set up to try the Guantanamo inmates prosecuting Mr Khadr, who is now 21.
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Comment:
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