TORONTO - Plans to put Omar Khadr through pre-trial hearings on an important U.S. public holiday that falls the day before Barack Obama is sworn in as president is a sign of the prosecution's desperation, his Pentagon-appointed lawyer says.
Khadr is due before a military commission in Guantanamo Bay on Jan. 19 -- Martin Luther King Day -- for what could be a final week of arguments before his war-crimes trial starts.
Every office of the U.S. federal government will be closed for the holiday dedicated to the slain civil-rights leader but Khadr's prosecutors have indicated they plan to move ahead regardless, said Lt.-Cmdr Bill Kuebler.
"These people are so desperate to get the train moving in some form or fashion that they're going to start this case on Martin Luther King Day and continue through the inauguration day," Kuebler said in an interview.
"It shows desperation and you can almost interpret it as a thumb in the eye of the incoming Obama camp."
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to shut down the infamous American prison on Cuba where Khadr has been detained for six years.
"One is disappointed that the outgoing administration is so determined to keep these things going even despite the clear signals from the incoming folks," Kuebler said.
Khadr's prosecutor, Jeff Groharing, did not respond to email requests for comment.
Khadr, 22, is due to stand trial before an internationally condemned military commission on charges he threw a hand grenade that killed an American special forces soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002.
One witness expected to testify, during both the final week of pre-trial arguments and at the trial proper, is a former guard at the notorious Bagram prison in Afghanistan, where a severely wounded 15-year-old Khadr was first held following his capture.
The witness, Pte. Damien (Monster) Corsetti, is expected to testify about the practices in place in the prison.
"It's hard to imagine the Obama folks wanting that to be their first week in office -- some Bagram interrogator talking about how there were no rules and they were torturing and abusing people and now we're using the fruits of that to prosecute this former child soldier," Kuebler said.
"I'm hopeful that's a spectacle the incoming administration will want to avoid."
Kuebler called it a "waste of resources" for the Pentagon to forge ahead with prosecuting Khadr, especially since Obama has made it clear he wants to see another method of dealing with detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Continuing the prosecutions, the legality of which have been widely questioned, could also undermine any attempts to try the suspects -- some of whom have admitted to organizing the 9-11 terrorist attacks -- in a normal federal or other court, he said.
"It's reckless and irresponsible from the standpoint of protecting the government's interests," Kuebler said.
