[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] on Thursday rejected the Canadian government’s bid to have former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [JURIST news archive] declared an adult offender. The case concerned whether the eight-year war crimes sentence Khadr received from a US military commission in 2010 should be interpreted as a youth or adult sentence. Nine Supreme Court justices rejected the federal government’s conclusion that Khadr received five concurrent eight-year terms. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin [official website] confirmed the Alberta Court of Appeal [official website] decision that Khadr’s sentence should be served in a provincial facility and ordered that the appeal be dismissed. Khadr, 28, is a Canadian citizen who was captured by US forces at the age of 15 after he was found fighting in Afghanistan in 2002 as a child soldier. He spent eight years in Guantanamo before being convicted on five charges and sentenced to eight years in prison for war crimes. The US transferred Khadr [JURIST report] to Canada in 2012.

The US military prison of Guantanamo [JURIST backgrounder] has been an area of controversy for several years. In May the Human Rights Watch (HRW) [official website] said that by releasing Omar Khadr on bail [JURIST report], Canada was taking a “significant step toward ending his ordeal.” The HRW urged the Canadian government to rehabilitate Khadr and assist his integration into society. In April a US government source revealed that Shaker Aamer, a Saudi citizen and former UK resident detained at Guantanamo Bay, is expected to be released [JURIST report] in June after recent calls from the UK government. In February the US Department of Defense overturned a rule [JURIST report] that sought to speed up the litigation process of military commission prosecutions by requiring judges to relocate to Guantanamo.