GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba | A Canadian accused of killing an American soldier as a teenage al Qaeda militant pleaded guilty Monday as part of a deal that avoids a war crimes trial for someone labeled a “child soldier” by his defenders.
Omar Khadr pleaded to five charges including murder for throwing a grenade that mortally wounded the soldier during a fierce raid on an al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.
The now 24-year-old defendant also admitted to planting improvised explosive devices and receiving weapons training from the terrorist network.
The exact terms of the plea agreement were not immediately disclosed. Khadr will now face a military jury for a sentencing hearing that is expected to last several days. The panel cannot impose a sentence more severe than the plea agreement. His trial had been scheduled to start Monday and he faced a possible life sentence.
Dressed in a dark suit instead of the solid color jumpsuits typically worn by prisoners held at the U.S. base in Cuba, the defendant, who was born in Toronto and speaks fluent English, repeatedly answered “yes” to a series of questions from the military judge making sure he understood the charges against him.
Khadr, who had previously rejected a plea agreement, stared down at the defense table without making eye contact with the judge. Asked whether anyone had made any promises to him so that he would plead guilty, he answered simply “no.”
Earlier, his lawyers had said they hoped to secure an agreement because he faced a possible life sentence under a military tribunal system that they believe favors the prosecution despite changes adopted under President Obama.
“There’s not much choice,” attorney Dennis Edney said. “He either pleads guilty to avoid trial, or he goes to trial, and the trial is an unfair process.”
Khadr would be eligible for transfer back to his native Canada after serving the first year of his sentence as part of the agreement, said Army Col. Patrick Parrish, the military judge.
Canada’s government issued a terse reaction, noting that he had pleaded guilty.
“This matter is between Mr. Khadr and the US government. We have no further comment,” said Catherine Loubier, a spokeswoman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, in e-mail.
Khadr was accused of killing U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer of Albuquerque, N.M., during a battle to take an al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. The U.S. says the Canadian, who was seriously wounded in the firefight, is a war criminal because he was not a legitimate soldier. The prisoner also faces charges of spying, material support for terrorism, conspiracy and attempted murder.
His war crimes trial, the first under Mr. Obama, began in August but was put on hold when Khadr’s defense lawyer fell ill and collapsed in the courtroom.
Defenders say he was a child soldier pushed into militancy by his father, an associate of Osama bin Laden who was killed in Pakistan after his son’s capture. And they say that killing a soldier during a firefight does not amount to a war crime.
The sentencing hearing is likely to feature testimony from witnesses, including Sgt. Speer’s widow, with whom he had two children, and another soldier who was blinded in one eye during the firefight. A jury of military officers will vote on a sentence but officials overseeing the tribunals will reject their decision if it exceeds the terms of the plea bargain.
Several media outlets in Canada, citing anonymous sources, have reported that Khadr would face one more year at Guantanamo and eight back in his native country.
Layne Morris, the now-retired Army sergeant who was partially blinded in the raid, previously said he would oppose that reported sentence as too lenient.
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