Suspected Al Qaeda-Linked Man Arrested

TORONTO – The eldest son of an accused Al Qaeda financier was arrested in his family's apartment on a U.S. warrant, weeks after returning to Canada from more than a year of detention in Pakistan, officials said Sunday.

Abdullah Khadr, 24, faces extradition to the United States on charges of procuring weapons for the Al Qaeda terror network for use against U.S. forces, said the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, where the charges were filed. He faces a maximum of life imprisonment.

Khadr was arrested Saturday and is jailed in Toronto. A bail hearing is scheduled for Monday.

He allegedly bought explosives, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other munitions for Al Qaeda at the request of his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian who was killed in a 2003 battle with Pakistani forces.

Khadr had been held in Pakistan since Oct. 12, 2004, when Pakistani intelligence officers picked him up in a car in Islamabad. He returned to Canada several weeks ago.

His lawyer, Dennis Edney, accused the U.S. of participating in the "abuse of Mr. Khadr for the past 18 months in a Pakistani prison." He said the United States had pressed Khadr for "evidence against persons of interest to the U.S., people whom he didn't know."

Edney said Khadr's mother, Maha Elsamnah, was also briefly detained when she became incensed at seeing her son taken away. She was not charged.

The elder Khadr was killed in 2003 when a Pakistani Cobra helicopter shelled the house where he was staying with senior Al Qaeda operatives, according to Pakistani officials.

All three of Khadr's brothers have been detained at various times and linked to terrorism.

One brother, 19-year-old Omar Khadr, is the only Canadian detainee at the U.S. camp for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He faces trial on charges of murder and attempted murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic.

The U.S. attorney in Boston said Abdullah Khadr received military training at a camp in Afghanistan for four months in the mid-1990s.

Khadr denies any involvement with Al Qaeda. He has acknowledged attending a training camp in Afghanistan for two weeks when he was 13 but said it had nothing to do with terrorism.

His brother, Abdurahman Khadr, however, said in a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. documentary that his father and some of his brothers had fought for Al Qaeda and even stayed with the terror network's leader, Usama bin Laden.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said Sunday the Khadr family was being afforded the same rights as all Canadian citizens.

"They have Canadian citizenship, and we don't have two classes of citizens," he said. "But the fact is the arrest warrants have been issued and the legal process will now take place."

A 16-year-old Khadr brother, Karim, lives in Toronto and was paralyzed after being shot in the battle that killed his father.

Canadian police have also investigated their 25-year-old sister, Zaynab Khadr. Her laptop, dozens of DVDs, cassettes and diaries were seized at Toronto's Pearson International Airport as she arrived from Pakistan in February.