Muslim Council of Montreal hopes for justice in the case of Canadian Omar Khadr

September 29, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Montreal, Quebec, September 29th, 2012- The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) welcomed the return of Canadian Omar Khadr back to Canada, after a decade in Guantanamo Bay and a year after he was eligible for repatriation.

 

“As Omar Khadr’s case moves out of Guantanamo and into the Canadian system, we hope that at last justice will be served in this case,” stated Salam Elmenyawi, president of MCM. “It is about time that Canada brought Omar Khadr home from Guantanamo, as it is a disgrace that we were the only Western nation left to have a citizen in a detention facility that imprisons children and operates outside the rule of law.”


Khadr was captured as a child soldier in Afghanistan at the age of 15 and was held for over seven years in detention at Guantanamo Bay, without due process or conviction. In 2009 the Federal Court of Canada ruled that it was obligatory for the Canadian government to immediate repatriate Khadr, as a principle of fundamental justice, and in 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Canadian government had violated Khadr’s charter rights.

 

“According to UN bodies and many agencies, such as Amnesty International, there have been numerous human rights violations in Omar Khadr’s case,” Elmenyawi said. “The allegations of abuse and torture, the violation of his charter rights, his status as a child soldier, unlawful detention, and the failure to meet international standards for a fair trial -the Canadian government must act without delay to investigate all of these issues, serve justice and free Omar Khadr at last.”

 

 

CONTACT:

 

Salam Elmenyawi

Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM)

Ph.: (514) 748-8427

E-mail: muslimcouncil@gmail.com

Website: http://www.muslimcouncil.org

 

 

 The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella organization representing a number of Islamic institutions in the Montreal region. There are over 300,000 Muslims in Montreal, about 1,250,000 in Canada and 1.9 billion worldwide.

 

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