Decision next month: Omar Khadr wants court to rule war crimes sentence expired

An Alberta judge is to rule next month whether former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr should have his eight-yearsentence for war crimes declared expired.

The sentence, which was imposed in 2010 by a military commissionin the United States, would have ended last October had Khadrremained in custody.

But the clock stopped when a judge freed him on bail in 2015pending Khadr's appeal of his military conviction -- a years-longprocess that has no end in sight.

His lawyer, NathanWhitling, told an Edmonton court that Khadrserved three years and five months in custody and has been out onbail for another three years and nine months.

He said the appeal, in the meantime, hasn't advanced "even aninch" in the U.S.

"Mr. Khadr's sentence essentially is frozen in time," Whitlingtold Chief Justice Mary Moreau on Tuesday.

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The Toronto-born Khadr spent years in U.S. detention atGuantanamo Bay after he was captured and accused of tossing agrenade that killed special forces soldier Christopher Speer in Afghanistan in 2002.

He was later transferred to an Edmonton prison and the SupremeCourt of Canada ruled the punishment handed Khadr for the actscommitted when he was 15 years old was to be a youth sentence.

His application in youth court Tuesday asked the judge to placehim under conditional supervision for one day then declare hissentence served.

Since his release on bail, Khadr has lived in Edmonton and RedDeer, Alta., without any issues.

"He's been an upstanding citizen since being released," saidWhitling. "There's just nothing negative to say about Mr. Khadr."

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Another judge had eased some of his initial bail conditions, butseveral remain in place.

Those conditions include not having access to a Canadianpassport, a ban on unsupervised communication with his sister, wholives in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and a requirement tonotify his bail supervisor before leaving Alberta.

Both federal and provincial Crown lawyers said Tuesday that Khadrshould serve the remainder of his eight-year sentence in thecommunity with similar conditions.

"We have no objection to the applicant not serving time incustody," Alberta Crown prosecutor Doreen Mueller said in court.

"The remainder of the sentence has to be served.

"The sentence is the sentence."

Federal Crown prosecutor Bruce Hughson added any reduction in thesentence would go against the international treaty under which Khadrwas transferred to Canada.

"Canada cannot, under its treaty obligations, alter the lengthof the sentence," he said. "What they do allow is an alteration ofthe length of confinement."

Hughson said he understands Khadr's frustration with the appealprocess, but suggested Tuesday's application should have been madeby lawyers at the same time as the bail application in 2015.

"The fact is they didn't," he said.

Whitling said they made a tactical decision to seek bail in 2015without dealing with the sentence.

"Hindsight is always 20/20," said the defence lawyer.

He added that the Crown was blowing Canada's internationalobligations out of proportion.

"What the United States agreed was that you can treattransferred youth prisoners just like you do your own youth
prisoners," he said outside court. "It wouldn't surprise them atall ... to learn that this type of review exists.

"I don't take seriously that somehow the relationship betweenthe two countries would be negatively affected by this decision."

Moreau said she will hand down her decision March 25.