Free Khadr now, UN official says

The UN’s special representative for children in armed conflict says Omar Khadr “represents the classic child soldier.”

As the sentencing hearing for Omar Khadr continues at Guantanamo Bay, the UN’s Radhika Coomaraswamy released a letter today saying that the Canadian citizen should immediately be released into a controlled rehabilitation program. Coomaraswamy said that Khadr was recruited by unscrupulous adults to fight in a conflict he barely understood, and should be treated in accordance with international guidelines that dictate child soldiers should not be prosecuted. Khadr, now 24, pleaded guilty on Monday to killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002, and faces up to eight more years in prison. The military commission sentencing Khadr heard testimony yesterday from a psychiatrist who said he has little chance of reintegrating into society.