Canada: Justice released a man wanted by Washington for terrorism

Canadian Court has released Wednesday by a man called the United States, which suspected him of supplying weapons to Al Qaeda, after his lawyers had argued that his confession had been extracted under torture, has Judicial sources said.

Abdullah Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was released Wednesday after a judge of the Superior Court of Ontario had rejected the extradition request from the U.S. and ruled in favor of a "stay of proceedings," according the minutes of hearing of which AFP has obtained a copy.

Suspected by the United States of arming the organization of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Khadr has been imprisoned for 14 months by Pakistani authorities in October 2004. According to the Canadian justice, the United States had paid $ 500,000 to the Pakistani authorities for his capture. Released by Islamabad in December 2005, he was imprisoned shortly after his return to Canada at the request of the United States.

After more than four and a half years in Canadian jails, his lawyers had succeeded in stressing that their client's confession had been extracted under torture during his detention in Pakistan, according to the report of the hearing.

Supporting their argument, the psychiatrist Leslie Payne, who has followed Abdullah Khadr during his five months after returning to Canada, told the court that his patient was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, which may be consecutive episodes of Torture in detention. However, another psychiatrist, called as a witness by the court, disagreed with Dr. Payne, speaking instead of disorders related to its re-acclimation to its usual environment.

At Wednesday's hearing, Justice Christopher Speyer said he was convinced that Khadr had been mistreated and physically abused, "but not as seriously as he says in his affidavit.

He admitted that there was no formal proof that Abdullah Khadr was in possession of explosive substances.

He also lamented that the thirty could not get help from Canadian authorities in a reasonable time during his detention in Pakistan: "I am fully convinced that the United States and Pakistan are jointly responsible for having denied Abdullah Khadr immediate access to the consular, "wrote Justice Speyer in its report.

"I think it will be a new start in life for me (...) I want to start from scratch. I do not want to think about it," he told CBC Abdullah Khadr, he left the court free .

The matter is now in the hands of the federal Department of Justice, which has 30 days to intervene in the final decision on extradition.

Abdullah Khadr is the eldest brother of Omar Kadhr, the last Western detainee at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States accuses the young man to have a GI killed in Afghanistan.