Amnesty International Terrorism Expert to Attend Khadr Hearings at GITMO

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Amnesty International USA's
policy director for (counter) terrorism and human rights Tom Parker will be
observing Omar Khadr's hearing at the U.S.-controlled detention center in
Guantanamo Bay beginning Wednesday, October 7.

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He will be available to the media to provide in-depth analysis and strategic
insights into the proceedings.

Parker is a former officer in the British Security Service (MI5). He spent the
bulk of his service working as an investigator in the fields of international
terrorism and organized crime. He is also a former war crimes investigator
with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia working in the field in Bosnia and Kosovo, and served with the
Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was detained in July 2002 by U.S. armed forces in
Afghanistan at the age of fifteen. He is also the only minor whose case is
currently before the military commissions. Khadr is accused of having thrown a
hand-grenade at U.S. troops and the murder of a soldier.

In addition to harboring grave concerns about the fairness of the military
commissions' process and the reliability of the evidence collected in this
case, Amnesty International particularly condemns the attempt to try the
alleged actions of a fifteen-year-old child as those of an adult. The U.S.
government's treatment of Khadr has failed to comply with international law,
including special protections for children taken into custody.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist
organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers
in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The
organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the
public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and
dignity are denied.

SOURCE Amnesty International

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