Lawyer: Gitmo Co-Counsel Banned Me
A private practitioner from Canada who represents a Guantanamo Bay detainee held since the age of 15 has reportedly been banned by his military co-counsel from the client’s upcoming arraignment at a military tribunal.
Because of a dispute with co-counsel selected by the Pentagon about how best to handle the defense of Omar Khadr, a Canadian-born Muslim who is now 21, attorney Dennis Edney says he has been told he cannot attend next week’s arraignment, according to the Associated Press.
“By stopping me from going, they are violating his right to the counsel of his choice,” Edney told the news agency today.
The dispute between Khadr’s private and military counsel reportedly centers on a plan by the Pentagon-appointed lawyers to attempt to repatriate Khadr to Canada, which Edney apparently doesn’t necessarily oppose but says is diverting the lawyers’ focus from preparing for trial. (The controversy is somewhat reminiscent of the debate over the way that David Hicks was returned to Australia, which is discussed in a recent ABAJournal.com post.)
As detailed earlier, Khadr was captured in Afghanistan at age 15 and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a soldier. A brief defense victory in June, when a military judge threw out charges against him because he had not been properly charged as an unlawful enemy combatant, was followed by a successful regrouping and appeal on the part of military prosecutors.
The military did not respond to AP’s request for comment.
