Omar Khadr to appear in Guantanamo Bay courtroom on Monday

After eight years of delays Omar Khadr will appear in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom on Monday charged with participating in war crimes when he was just 15, making him the youngest person to be held in Guantanamo Bay's detention camps.

Omar Khadr will appear in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom on Monday, marking the first hearing of the Bush-era war crimes tribunals to take place under U.S. President Barack Obama. Khadr was captured by American forces in 2002 at the age of 15, making him the youngest person to be held in Guantanamo Bay and therefore dubbed a child soldier. He was detained following a 4-hour fire fight with militants in the village of Ayub Kheyl, Afghanistan where he was accused of participating in war crimes and providing support to terrorism after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier. Khadr is the only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo Bay, held by the US authorities. Canada refused to seek extradition or repatriation despite being urged by Human Rights organisations. UNICEF, Amnesty International and the Canadian Bar Association are among the organisations that have been fighting for this child soldier from the beginning. In April this year however the Federal Court of Canada ruled that International Law made it obligatory for the government to immediately demand Khadrs return. This should end a battle for Khadr and a series of delays to trial that he is said to be exasperated with. But prosecutors want the judge to suspend the trial on Monday to September, saying that it will be in the lines of President Obama's administartions call for cases to remain on hold, pending completion of a review. Khadr’s defence lawyers say that the case should be thrown out instead of being postponed again. Prosecutors say, however, that a central reason Khadr still awaits trial nearly 8 years after his capture on the Afghan battle field is because defence lawyers have been raising one legal objection after another. Charges on Khadr have been dropped three times, but still no word yet on any release. One reason for a delay was in February 2008 when the Pentagon accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present during the fire fight there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade. In fact military officials had originally reported that another one of the surviving Militants had thrown the grenade just before being killed. As of January 2009 64% of Canadian’s supported repatriating Khadr to Canada. Upon his incarceration officers saw him as an intelligence treasure trove hoping that he would be able to provide links to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda since his family were known to have close ties with them both. Oman is the fourth Son of the Khadra family. His Father Ahmed Said Khadr was killed in 2003; a year after his sons capture in a Pakistani attack which involved Omar’s brother Abdullah and left him paraplegic. All of the Khadr family members were noted for their alleged ties to Bin Laden and their alleged connections to Al Qaeda. Bin Laden attended Zaynab, Omar’s Sisters wedding and his older Brother is notoriously known for his press interviews and dubbing his family ‘an Al Qaeda family’. The entire family still maintains that they have never broken any Canadian laws and they have never been charged with crimes by Canadian authorities. Despite the officers' hopes Omar Khadr has never been any help to them in assessing Bin Laden or Al Qaeda. He was only 15 at the time of being charged, the questions he was being asked during interrogation were from when he was as young as 10 years old. The Security Intelligence Review Committee is currently investigating the role of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in the interrogation of Khadr. He went on hunger strike numerous times in protest of his interrogation but was force fed by officials. There are still concerns of the trial on Monday. Judge Patrick Parrish refuses to get involved in the dispute which appears to be rising between Khadr’s defence lawyers. Navy Lieutenant Commander Bill Kuebler was Khadr’s defence attorney since early 2007.He has been credited by many observers for raising many issues in the case that are now under review, alongside others in the Guantanamo Bay system. But the arrival of new Commanding Officer Air Force Col. Peter Masiola overseeing the Pentagons Guantanamo defence lawyers last year sought to replace him with Navy Commander Walter Ruiz after a dispute that saw Kuebler sidelined. Insiders say that Judge Parrish will allow Khadr to decide himself who he want to be defended by. Read more about Omar Khadr at http://www.omarkhadrproject.com/