Child Soldier, Omar Khadr, Pleads Guilty in Plea Agreement

A Canadian prisoner in Guantanamo Bay has pleaded guilty to
killing an American soldier while he was a young teenager as part of a
deal that will allow him to avoid a war crimes trial.

Omar Khadr on Monday pleaded guilty to five charges, including
murder, for throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier in Afghanistan
in 2002. He was just 15 at the time of the incident, which occurred
during a fierce firefight at an al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan.

Khadr, now 24, also admitted to planting improvised explosive devices
and receiving weapons training from al-Qaeda. His defence lawyers say
that because Khadr was a child when the offences occurred, he should not
be tried for war-crimes.

The exact terms of the plea deal were not immediately disclosed, but
Khadr is due to be sentenced by a military jury in several days. The
sentence they impose is bound by the plea deal.

Khadr would be allowed to trasfer back to his native Canada after
serving a year of his sentence as part of the deal, the military judge
in charge of the case said.

Trial criticised

The US has argued that Khadr, who was badly wounded during the
fighting, is a war criminal because he was not a regular solider. But
his case has long outraged opponants to Guantanamo, who say he was a
child soldier and was subjected to mistreatment while in US custody.

Khadr's defence team say he was pushed into fighting the US by his
father, said to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden. Human rights
defenders have criticised Barack Obama, the US president, for seeking to
prosecute Khadr.

"It's particularly galling that a president who promised to restore
human rights is beginning the first trial here with a child soldier who
was abused for years in US custody and was taken to a war zone by his
dad," Jennifer Turner, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties
Union who is at Guantanamo to observe proceedings against Khadr, said.

Many of Obama's supporters have been angered by his failure to close
Guantanamo, despite promising to do so in his campaign and ordering the
government to do so as one of his first acts as president.

Around 170 prisoners are still being held at Guantanamo.
Congressional opposition to its closure, and difficulty in finding
countries to take the men held there, has stalled Obama's plan to close
the prison.