Canada asks US not to use Canadian-gathered evidence against Guantanamo detainee

Canada asks US not to use evidence

TORONTO — Canada asked the United States on Tuesday not to use any evidence gathered by Canadian officials in any future prosecution of the youngest detainee held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced late Tuesday that the official request was made in a diplomatic note sent to the U.S. government.

It is Ottawa’s first response to last month’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling that found that Canada breached Omar Khadr’s rights by sending intelligence agents to Guantanamo to interrogate him.

The ruling did not order the Canadian government to repatriate Khadr.

Khadr, who was born in Toronto, is now 23 but was 15 when he was captured after allegedly killing an American soldier with a grenade in a 2002 battle in Afghanistan. Authorities say his family has close links to al-Qaida.

Nicholson said the Canadian government wants assurances that any evidence or statements gathered by Canadian agents and officials during interviews with Khadr in 2003 and 2004 not be used against him by U.S. authorities.

Khadr’s war-crimes trial is expected to start in Guantanamo later this year.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has steadfastly refused to request the return of Khadr, the last Western detainee held at the prison at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Canada’s three opposition parties have demanded that Harper’s Conservative government bring Khadr home. He has received some sympathy from Canadians, largely due to his age and the torture allegations, but his family has been widely criticized and called the “first family of terrorism.”

His father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was an alleged al-Qaida militant and financier, killed by Pakistani forces in 2003. A brother, Abdullah Khadr, is being held in Canada on a U.S. extradition warrant, accused of supplying weapons to al-Qaida. Another brother has acknowledged the family stayed with Osama bin Laden.