Omar Ahmed Said Khadr (Arabic: عمر أحمد سعيد خضر; born September 19, 1986) is a Canadian who, at the age of 15, was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer and other charges.

After eight years in detention, Khadr pleaded guilty in October 2010 to "murder in violation of the laws of war" and four other charges at a hearing before a United States military commission.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Omar's mother and his siblings feared U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, and retreated toward the Pakistani mountains, where the father visited infrequently.

His father agreed, and a month later allowed Omar to accompany a group of Arabs associated with Abu Laith al-Libi who needed a Pashto translator during their stay in Khost.

[30] Starting in February 2002, American soldiers used an abandoned Soviet airbase in Khost, Afghanistan, as an intelligence-gathering outpost, with the goal of gaining the trust of the local community.

[36] In the early morning of July 27, 2002, a team made up of the 19th Special Forces Group, the 505th Infantry Regiment and about twenty[39] Afghan fighters associated with Pacha Khan Zadran, were sent to a house on a reconnaissance mission.

[citation needed] Seeing five men described as "well-dressed" in the main residence with AK-47s nearby, there is dispute whether the Americans approached and told the occupants to open the front door[44] or set up a perimeter around the complex.

[42] Reinforcements from the 3rd Platoon of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 505th Infantry Regiment arrived under the command of Captain Christopher W. Cirino,[45][46] bringing the total number of soldiers to about fifty.

[48][49] At least one woman and a child fled the huts, while the remaining occupants began throwing grenades at the American and Afghan troops, paired with intermittent rifle fire.

Arriving at the scene, the Apaches strafed the compound with cannon and rocket fire, while the medical helicopters remained 12 miles (19 km) from the ongoing firefight.

[42] The video shows Khadr toying with detonating cord as other men, including one later identified as Abu Laith al-Libi, assemble explosives in the same house that had been destroyed the day before by US forces.

[42] The BBC said the US forces and militia had come under small arms fire; a US source noted it was the first time the enemy "had stood his ground" since Operation Anaconda had ended four months earlier.

[51] Speer was moved from Bagram airbase to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he was removed from life support on August 7 and died; his heart, liver, lungs and kidneys were donated for use by other patients.

[59] Col. Marjorie Mosier operated on his eyes after his arrival,[64] though fellow detainee Rhuhel Ahmed later claimed that Khadr had been denied other forms of surgery to save his eyesight as punishment for not giving interrogators the answers they sought.

[80] For three weeks prior to the Canadian visit, the US guards deprived Khadr of sleep, moving him to a new cell every three hours for 21 days in order to "make him more amenable and willing to talk".

His attorneys later applied for and obtained an injunction from Justice Konrad von Finckenstein of the Federal Court of Canada to prevent CSIS from interrogating their client in the future.

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 "Healthcare Services Evaluation".

[94] In April 2005, Khadr was given another written psychiatric test by his lawyers, which they gave for interpretation to Dr. Daryl Matthews, a forensic psychologist who had been invited to Guantanamo two years earlier by The Pentagon.

[109] On September 21, 2004, more than sixty Habeas motions filed by Guantanamo detainees were transferred to a single suit before senior Judge Joyce Hens Green for coordination.

[132][133] On September 9, 2007, charges were reinstated against Khadr after the Court of Military Commission Review overturned Brownback's dismissal, stating that the tribunal could determine the legality of a detainee's status for itself.

[148] Following Brownback's "ruling against the government", the Pentagon announced that he was being removed from the trial in favour of Patrick Parrish, leading critics to highlight what they believed was "more evidence of the illegitimacy" of the tribunal and that official explanations of the timing as being coincidental were "unconvincing".

[74] In 2007, the Federal Court of Appeal ordered the Canadian government to turn over its records related to Khadr's time in captivity, as judge Richard Mosley stated it was apparent that Canada had violated international law.

[81] The government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2008, arguing that Khadr was just "fishing" for information and that disclosing their records, which included an initial account of the firefight that differs from all previously seen reports,[158] could jeopardize national security.

[159][160] On May 23, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that the government had acted illegally, contravening Section Seven of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and ordered the videotapes of the interrogation released.

[163] On July 7, 2010, less than one week before the beginning of preliminary hearings in his trial before a military commission, Khadr fired his entire team of lawyers and announced that he would act as his own legal defense.

[169]Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Secretary-General's special representative for children and armed conflict, wrote in a 2010 statement that the proposed trial violated international legal norms and "may endanger the status of child soldiers all over the world.

Karim Amégan and Suneeta Millington reported that Khadr was "salvageable" if allowed to return to Canadian society, but that keeping him in the prison would risk radicalizing him.

[178] Finally, in January 2010, in a unanimous 9–0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the participation of Canadian officials in Khadr's interrogations at Guantanamo clearly violated his rights under the Charter.

[186] Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney said, "Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to very serious crimes, including the murder of American army medic Sgt.

[26] At a press conference on July 7, 2017, Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale confirmed the settlement and issued a formal apology on behalf of the government.