Abdullah Khadr - Return To Canada and Extradition Request

Return To Canada and Extradition Request

Abdullah returned to Canada on December 2, 2005 accompanied by two officials from the Foreign Affairs department, and was met by RCMP officer Konrad Shourie and others who interviewed him for 2.5 hours. Two days later, Khadr agreed to another interview with FBI agents in the presence of Shourie. Court documents confirmed that he and his sister Zaynab were both under investigation by the RCMP for terrorism-related offences, though commentators expressed confusion why he wasn't facing any criminal charges under Canadian law. During his sixteen days of freedom in Canada, Khadr was under constant RCMP surveillance.

On December 17, 2005 Khadr was phoned by the Canadian police and asked to meet them at a nearby McDonalds' restaurant. When he arrived, he was arrested based on the Boston extradition order, while the RCMP insisted the arrest "had nothing to do with" Canadian police. His mother was also arrested after she hit a police officer present, while his brother Abdurahman took photos of the arrest with his camera phone. The next day, Prime Minister Paul Martin spoke at length about Abdullah and other members of the Khadr family, reiterating that there was only one kind of Canadian citizenship, and that Abdullah, and the other members of his family were as entitled to all the legal protections as any other citizen.

Khadr was denied bail five days later by Justice Anne Molloy of Ontario's Superior Court of Justice. Abdullah was represented by Nathan Whitling, Dennis Edney and James Silver. He wore a black t-shirt reading "For the Future of Islam", and his grandmother Fatmah el-Samnah offered to act as his surety, putting up her $300,000 house as collateral. The motion for bail was opposed by prosecutor Robin Parker, who referenced American claims that the forged passport Khadr had purchased in Pakistan had been intended to allow him to flee to a country without an extradition treaty with the United States, Khadr's lawyers attempted to have a publication ban bar media from reporting on the bail hearing. Prosecutor Robin Parker opposed this request for a publication ban, citing the open courts principle. Justice Molloy refused to order the publication ban, and ultimately denied bail. She found that there was an unacceptable risk that Khadr would flee, and also that the public confidence in the administration of justice would be undermined were she to grant Khadr bail. A second application for bail which was brought before Justice Gary Trotter was also refused.

On May 22, 2006, he was involved in a brawl with another inmate at Toronto West Detention Centre over telephone privileges. He appeared in court shortly afterwards, where he was represented by attorney James Silver, and his extradition hearing was set to begin October 30.

On April 7, 2008, he appeared in a Toronto court to argue against extradition to the United States, alleging that his confessions in Pakistan were obtained through torture.

Classified evidence was not shown to the public, but was shared with both Khadr and his lawyers, and judge Richard Mosley wrote a private summary of the information it contained. Khadr argued that the evidence was simply what he had said to convince Pakistani captors to stop torturing him.

On October 5, 2009 Abdullah Khadr testified about his capture and treatment in Pakistan. Colin Freeze, writing in the Globe and Mail, reporting on Abdullah's claims of torture, reported: "Ultimately, the judge will decide how to square Mr. Khadr's alleged admissions with such legal principles as the right to remain silent and the right to counsel, in determining whether any of his statements ought to count at all."

Isabel Teotonio, writing in the Toronto Star, reported that Abdullah testified that he was beaten and "penetrated" by a rubber paddle during the fourteen months he spent in Pakistani extrajudicial detention.

Following final arguments regarding the USA's request to extradite Khadr on April 7, 8 and 9, 2010, Ontario Superior Court Justice Christopher Speyer denied the extradition request on August 4, 2010 and Abdullah Khadr was set free after 4½ years.

Abdullah told reporters after his release. “I think this is going to be a new beginning for me in life.”

Michelle Shephard, the Toronto Star's national security expert, reported that Speyer's ruling was 62 pages long. According to Shephard, while criticizing the $500,000 bounty the USA offered, and the abuse Abdullah suffered, Speyer wrote: “the rule of law must prevail over intelligence objectives.”

Dennis Edney, one of Abdullah's lawyers, said, “When a U.S. government or any foreign government steps into a Canadian court they have to arrive with clean hands.”

The Canadian government appealed the courts decision but lost its case on May 7, 2011 when the highest court in Ontario confirmed unanimous in a 3-0 ruling the original judge's decision to deny the extradition request.

According to Nathan Whitling another of Abdullah's lawyers, he is engaged to be married.