World

Judge Denies Request To Freeze Former Al-Qaida Operative’s Assets

REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber/File Photo

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
Font Size:

A judge has refused to freeze the assets of a Canadian national who volunteered for al-Qaida in Afghanistan, where he killed a U.S. medic and blinded a U.S. soldier.

The request came from Tabitha Speer, the widow of U.S. Army medic Christopher Speer, who was killed by a grenade when Omar Khadr and other al-Qaida fighters ambushed an American patrol in Afghanistan 2002. Speer was joined by former U.S. Special Forces soldier Layne Morris, who was blinded in the attack.

Canadian Justice Edward Belobaba rejected the motion Thursday in a Toronto courtroom where the competing legal teams representing Speer and Omar Khadr have argued the case this week.

They made the request because a Utah court awarded Speer and Morris $134 million in damages in a civil case against Khadr. Justice Belobaba called the request “extraordinary” and said his denial was not a difficult legal matter.

Numerous reports have confirmed that the Trudeau government compensated Khadr with $10.5 million for alleged mistreatment while the confessed killer was serving time at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Neither the Canadian government, Khadr nor his lawyer has confirmed the amount of money that the former al-Qaida operative received. Several accounts of the payoff suggest that Khadr was paid secretly last week so that he could avoid any financial settlement with Speer and Morris.

Khadr’s lawyer had argued this week that there was “scant evidence” that Khadr would quickly dispose of this settlement money.

Videos exist of Khadr producing the lethal improved explosive devices (IEDs) aimed at killing Canadian and U.S. soldiers in-theatre.

Khadr was sent to an Afghanistan detention camp, where the severely wounded al-Qaida operative was nursed back to health by U.S. medics. He was sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention center until Canadian authorities arranged for his release in 2012. Khadr then spent three years in a Canadian prison before his release in 2015. In the interim he sued the Canadian government for alleged abuses he says he received from Canadian security personnel working alongside their U.S. counterparts at Guantanamo Bay.

Last week the Trudeau government decided to to unilaterally pay Khadr a reported $10.5 million and issue a formal apology because the Supreme Court of Canada had found that Khadr’s incarceration had been “oppressive.”

Follow David on Twitter