[JURIST] Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [JURIST news archive] has filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, challenging the US Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) [DOD materials] decision to send Khadr's case back to a military tribunal, Khadr's lawyers said Tuesday. Last week, the CMCR refused to reconsider its September ruling [JURIST reports] that the charges against Khadr could be reinstated, after a military commission judge dropped the charges [JURIST report] in June. Col. Peter Brownback reasoned that the court had no jurisdiction because a Guantanamo Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials] had found that Khadr was an "enemy combatant," but not an "unlawful enemy combatant" under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text]. The appeals court overturned Brownback's decision and directed him to hear evidence concerning, and ultimately decide, Khadr's "unlawful enemy combatant" status.

Khadr was detained in Afghanistan in 2002 after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed one US soldier and wounded another while fighting with the Taliban. He was only 15 at the time. After earlier proceedings against him were effectively quashed by the US Supreme Court's rejection of presidentially-established military commissions as unconstitutional, he was formally recharged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in April under the Military Commissions Act with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, as well as spying. AFP has more.