Omar Khadr

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Omar Khadr : biography

September 19, 1986 –

In all, Khadr has been reported to have been kept in solitary confinement for long periods of time; to have been denied adequate medical treatment; to have been subjected to short shackling, and left bound, in uncomfortable stress positions until he soiled himself.

Khadr’s lawyers allege that his interrogators "dragged [him] back and forth in a mixture of his urine and pine oil" and did not provide a change of clothes for two days in March 2003.

At the end of March 2003, Omar was upgraded to "Level Four" security, and transferred to solitary confinement in a windowless and empty cell for the month of April. In 2003, Khadr began leading prayer groups among the detainees. 

A year after he confided in Moazzam Begg, a British citizen who was then a detainee, that his older brother Abdurahman Khadr was working for the Americans, Omar was allowed a brief talk with Abdurahman. He was also being held as a detainee at Guantanamo and has claimed to have been working for the CIA at the time as an informant. His brother was held away in a separate enclosure. The two shouted to each other in Arabic, and Omar told his older brother not to admit their family’s dealings with al-Qaeda, and mentioned that he was losing his left eye., Frontline (PBS) During his stay, the younger Khadr memorised the Quran, according to a letter to his mother.Letter to his mother, 18/6/2004

In March 2004, the Canadian intelligence officer Jim Gould returned to Guantanamo, finding Khadr uncooperative. The Foreign Affairs office said that Khadr was trying to be a "tough guy" and impress his cellmates. His attorney Muneer Ahmad said that Khadr had originally thought Gould "had finally come to help him" in 2003, but by 2004 had realised that he was being interrogated, not aided, by the Canadian government. In all, Khadr was interrogated by Canadians six times between 2003–2004,Toronto Star, ", March 19, 2008 and ordered to identify photos of Canadians believed to have ties to terrorism. When he told the Canadians that he had been tortured by the Americans into giving false confessions, the Canadian authorities said he was a liar. Khadr cried. He later recalled that he had "tried to cooperate so that they would take me back to Canada".

In January 2004, Lieutenant-Commander Barbara Burfeind said that the US had decided not to hold juveniles at Guantanamo any longer, leading Clive Stafford Smith to question why Khadr was not only being held, but facing a military tribunal.Smith, Clive. Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side, p. 145 On June 18, 2004, Khadr wrote a letter to his mother, who had moved back to Canada to seek medical attention for his older brother Abdulkareem. Four months later he wrote another, as well as one to his brother Abdurahman Khadr.

In August, the attorneys Rick Wilson and Muneer Ahmad submitted an "emergency motion" asking for the release of Khadr’s medical records. Rebuffed, they were given a statement from the Guantanamo naval hospital commander Dr. John S. Edmondson that Khadr was "in good health", and a two-page document entitled "Healthcare Services Evaluation"., Brief Submitted to Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights, January 2008

In November 2004, following a meeting with his attorneys, Khadr was interrogated for four days about what he had discussed with his defence lawyers. He has said that during this time, interrogators used "extreme physical force" and refused to allow him to say his daily prayers.Memorandum submitted by Muneer Ahmad and Richard Wilson, for Omar Khadr v. Bush (March 21, 2005)

During this visit, the lawyers had administered a psychological questionnaire known as the "Mini–mental state examination", which they later gave to Dr. Eric W. Trupin, an expert in the developmental psychology of juveniles in confinement. Trupin ruled that Khadr was suffering from "delusions and hallucinations, suicidal behaviour and intense paranoia", and that his abuse had left him "particularly susceptible to mental coercion", and at moderate to high risk of committing suicide. their efforts to secure approval by the US for an independent medical examination of their client were not successful by mid-2006., Miami Herald, June 26, 2006Trupin Declaration, at paras. 19, 24. In Memorandum submitted by Muneer Ahmad and Richard Wilson for O.K. v. Bush (March 21, 2005) , Miami Herald, June 13, 2006