Guantanamo prisoner Omar Khadr has hired two Toronto lawyers known for their work in national security and constitutional law and fired his long-time Canadian attorneys, who twice argued his case before the Supreme Court.
A press release Thursday announced that John Norris and Brydie Bethell would represent the 24-year-old war criminal in Canada, where he will be transferred sometime during the next three months to serve the remainder of an eight-year sentence.
The news came as a shock to Edmonton-based lawyers Nathan Whitling and Dennis Edney, who learned about the firing through the press.
Whitling had left the case earlier this year after changing law firms, but Edney had been in Guantanamo visiting Khadr just last month.
“I wish him all the best,” Edney said.
Khadr wrote in a statement to the lawyers: “I wholeheartedly recognize the extraordinary commitment you have shown in everything that you have done for me . . . . Although I feel deeply indebted to you for your dedication, changing counsel at this time is in my best interests.”
Khadr will be transferred to a Canadian prison sometime before Oct. 31, according to a plea deal reached last fall.
Khadr confessed to five war crimes, including “murder in violation of the laws of war,” for throwing a grenade in during a 2002 Afghanistan firefight that fatally wounded U.S. soldier Sgt. Christopher Speer.
In return for his plea, he was given one additional year in Guantanamo and a promise from the Canadian government to bring him home for the additional seven years.
Khadr’s legal representation has been one of the side stories of the nine-year-old case as Khadr fired, re-hired or replaced the phalanx of U.S. civilian or military lawyers.
But Edney and Whitling, who have fought the case pro bono (as will Norris and Bethell), have been a consistent presence.
Canadian lawyers were not given official status at the Guantanamo proceedings but known instead as “foreign attorney consultants.”
Pentagon-appointed lawyers Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson and Maj. Matthew Schwartz remain on Khadr’s case.
