FACTBOX: Canadian faces war crimes trial at Guantanamo
(Reuters) - Here are facts about Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, who faces a war crimes tribunal on Thursday at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
*Omar Ahmed Khadr was born in Toronto on September 19, 1986, and is the last citizen of a Western nation among the 320 captives held as terrorism suspects by the U.S. military at Guantanamo.
*Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in July 2002.
*He is accused of throwing grenades that killed a U.S. special forces medic, Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, and wounded other coalition soldiers. Khadr himself was shot, blinded in the left eye by shrapnel and then patched up by another U.S. medic after the battle.
*Khadr is charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiring with al Qaeda, providing material support for terrorism and spying for conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan. He faces life in prison if convicted.
*Khadr was sent to Guantanamo shortly after he turned 16 and has received no education since then. His U.S. military lawyers argue he should be treated as a child soldier subject to rehabilitation.
*Khadr is the son of Ahmed Said Khadr, an alleged al Qaeda financier and confidant of Osama bin Laden who was killed in a shootout with Pakistani security forces in 2003. The U.S. military says the elder Khadr sent Omar and his other sons to al Qaeda training camps to learn how to use guns, grenades and other explosives.
Sources: U.S. Department of Defense and Khadr's military and civilian attorneys.
(Reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
