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At one point, Belobaba asked why Khadr would not “for goodwill” put the money aside pending trial on the Utah judgment.

Stacking $10 million against the US$134-million judgment made little sense, Whitling replied.

“Mr. Khadr has plans for his property, like everybody else does. It’s his property. He’s got the right to do with it as his wishes,” Whitling said. “There’s no reason it should be tied up. It’s as simple as that.”

Belobaba also saw little merit in Winer’s second point: Khadr’s refusal to promise the money would be available to the Americans suggests something nefarious. If Khadr had no plan to hide his assets, Winer said, it would have “been so easy to say so.”

The judge said he recognized the American families had been “horribly devastated” by death and injuries but said he saw no evidence Khadr would be “jumping on a plane to Venezuela” or somehow putting his money beyond their reach. Ultimately, Belobaba needed just a few minutes to reject the injunction application.

“You have to be really careful when you go around freezing people’s assets before trial,” he said. “This is not a difficult decision in law.”

The two sides are now expected back in court in the fall — likely October — to begin working toward a trial on the Utah judgment.

Legal experts say it will be difficult to have a Canadian court enforce the Utah award given that it is based almost entirely on Khadr’s 2010 confession before a widely condemned U.S. military commission that he had, as a 15-year-old, killed Speer in Afghanistan in July 2002.

Khadr later said he pleaded guilty to five purported war crimes as the only way to get out of Guantanamo and return to Canada, which he did in 2012.