Jury asked to ‘send a message’ in Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A prosecutor urged a military jury to send a message to the world Saturday with a 25-year sentence for a former teenage al-Qaida fighter convicted of war crimes – but it would be largely symbolic since a plea deal limits the time the last Westerner at Guantanamo would spend behind bars.

Canadian Omar Khadr, who was 15 when captured in Afghanistan in 2002, does not deserve special consideration because of his age or the radicalism of his father, prosecutor Jeff Groharing told jurors at a hilltop courtroom encircled by razor wire at the U.S. base in Cuba.

Nor should Khadr, now a lanky and bearded 24-year-old, be treated like just another soldier who threw a grenade that mortally wounded a U.S. special forces medic during a four-hour firefight, Groharing told the panel. Al-Qaida does not represent a country and ignores internationally accepted principles of war, he said.

“Omar Khadr is a terrorist and murderer who killed Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer and attempted to murder countless others,” he said. “The accused has caused tremendous pain and suffering for which he should be punished severely.”