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TORONTO - A Canadian citizen's four-year fight to stave off extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on terrorism-related charges, is poised to become even longer.
The federal government has decided to appeal a court ruling that stayed extradition proceedings against Abdullah Khadr on the grounds U.S. authorities had been complicit in his jailing and abuse in Pakistan.
"This is a government that has shown little respect for the judiciary by appealing every decision we have received, only to be later corrected by the Supreme Court," Dennis Edney, one of Khadr's Edmonton-based lawyers, said Tuesday.
In granting the rare stay on Aug. 4, Ontario Superior Court Justice Christopher Speyer found the U.S. had violated basic principles of justice.
He called the human-rights violations suffered by Khadr "both shocking and unjustifiable."
Co-defence lawyer, Nate Whitling, said he did not expect his client would be rearrested pending the outcome of the appeal, notice of which is expected on Wednesday.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson had said in response to Speyer's decision that the government would look "carefully" at the case.
At the time, Edney called the government's behaviour "totally unreasonable ... intractable in its views."
Khadr, 29, was freed immediately following Speyer's ruling and allowed to go home to his Toronto family after more than four years in detention.
He is the older brother of Omar Khadr, 23, who is in prison in Guantanamo Bay where he faces war-crimes charges. The U.S. accuses him of throwing a hand grenade that killed an American special forces soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.
On Tuesday, the presiding judge ordered the younger Khadr's military commission trial to proceed Oct. 18.
The day-old trial was abruptly halted when the sole defence lawyer collapsed in the courtroom.
Abdullah Khadr is wanted in Boston, where he is accused of supplying weapons to al-Qaida to be used against American forces in Afghanistan.
He was arrested in Pakistan in 2004 after the Americans put up a secret $500,000 bounty for his capture.
He claims to have been abused during 14 months he spent in Pakistani custody.
Khadr returned to Canada in December 2005 and had two weeks of freedom before RCMP arrested him on the American extradition warrant.
The Boston charges are predicated on three self-incriminating statements Khadr gave to FBI agents and the RCMP.
Speyer said the two statements given American agents were unreliable, but the statement Khadr gave to the RCMP would have been enough to extradite him.
The Khadr brothers are the sons of the late Ahmad Said Khadr, who was closely associated with Osama bin Laden and is alleged to have raised money for al-Qaida.
