Pentagon formally charges child 'enemy combatant'

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0426/p99s01-duts.html

Guantánamo detainee Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghan Al Qaeda compound after allegedly murdering a US serviceman.

By Eoin O'Carroll | csmonitor.com

A US military tribunal is scheduled to convene next month to try – on murder charges – a Canadian man who has been held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for almost five years, since he was captured at the age of 15. Human right groups are protesting the move, saying the man should be tried as a civilian.

The Associated Press reports that Omar Khadr, who was captured at an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in July 2002 after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US Green Beret, will be tried under the rules adopted last year for military tribunals.

The U.S. military charged him with murder, attempted murder, providing support to terrorism, conspiracy and spying under rules for military trials adopted last year and first used to try David Hicks, the Australian sentenced to nine months in prison after pleading guilty.

The military said the Toronto-born Khadr would be arraigned within 30 days. He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.