The family of an American soldier Omar Khadr allegedly killed in Afghanistan has filed with a Canadian court to force Khadr to answer questions about the incident.
Khadr, who is currently living as a free man in Alberta, admitted to killing Sgt. Chris Speer in 2002 in Afghanistan, but has since changed his mind about what happened.
In a civil court in Utah, a judge has ordered Khadr to answer to the suit, but so far Khadr has refused to discuss the incident with them.
Now the plaintiffs — Speer’s family and others injured by Khadr, have filed a motion in Canada asking that he be forced to address the suit.
“What is important are Mr Khadr’s actions that day and leading up to that day,” said Jamie Schacter, the lawyer for the plaintiffs.
“The plaintiffs and the Utah court hold Mr Khadr responsible.”
Khadr, who holds Canadian citizenship, was sentenced by an American court to eight years for war crimes he committed in Afghanistan.
In 2012 Khadr was transferred to a Canadian prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
However, he never spent a day behind bars in Canada — in 2015 he was released on bail while he appealed his war crimes charge in the United States.
In 2013, Khadr sued the Canadian government in a $20 million civil case, claiming Canada failed to protect his rights while he was in prison in the United States. Trudeau’s government decided not to fight Khadr’s claims and gave him a $10.5 million settlement.
Earlier this year a Trudeau-appointed judge cancelled the remaining three years of his sentence, saying that had never got bail his sentence would have expired by now anyway.
Khadr is now a free man, using $3 million from his taxpayer funded settlement to purchase an Alberta strip mall.
Now the Trudeau government is hunting for whoever leaked the settlement to the public before it was official.
After confessing in 2010, Khadr has since claimed that his confession was made under duress and in now denying everything — even refusing to speak about his past confession to the Utah court.
The plaintiffs still hope a Canadian judge will accept their motion and force Khadr to speak. The court date for the victims’ motion has not yet been set.
