Canadian citizen Omar Khadr is scheduled to be the first Guantanamo detainee to face a war crimes trial in the United States. Proceedings could begin as early as this week.

As reported by the Toronto Star, Khadr’s lawyers have appealed for an emergency stay of proceedings. They argue that the military commission established for the cases of Guantanamo detainees “falls far short of the guarantees of justice in civilian trials.”

You can read the whole story at TheStar.com.

The Straight previously reported that despite a Canadian Supreme Court ruling that Khadr’s constitutional rights have been violated, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative government are refusing to move to repatriate Khadr.

Khadr was born in Toronto and is now 23 years old. He was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in July 2002—then just 15 years old—and has been held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay ever since.

The U.S. government claims that Khadr threw a grenade which killed U.S. Sgt. Christopher Speer. In March 2008, a lawyer of Khadr’s made public U.S. government documents which contradict this narrative.

In a report dated July 28, 2002, a “Lieut. Col. W” states that the person who threw the grenade at Speer died in the firefight, which would rule out Khadr as a suspect.

Khadr has long been the only western national to remain at Guantanamo Bay.

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