UNICEF chief warns of ‘dangerous’ precedent trying Guantanamo child soldier
By APThursday, May 27, 2010
UNICEF head concerned for Guantanamo child soldier
UNITED NATIONS — UNICEF chief Anthony Lake warns of a dangerous precedent being set if the U.S. military tries “the last child soldier” held in Guantanamo Bay.
A July trial is planned for Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, 23. He arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer of New Mexico during a 2002 firefight at an al-Qaida compound.
His lawyers deny he threw the grenade and argue Khadr, the last Westerner at Guantanamo, deserves leniency because he was 15 at the time.
Lake says recruiting and using children in hostilities is a war crime and those responsible should be prosecuted, but the children involved are “victims, acting under coercion.”
He says Khadr, son of an Egyptian-born alleged al-Qaida financier, should be rehabilitated, not prosecuted.
