TORONTO – A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner in Canada was recovering Monday after a 19-hour shoulder operation at the University of Alberta Hospital, his lawyer said.
Omar Khadr underwent the complex procedure Friday to address wounds to his shoulder that he suffered in Afghanistan before his capture in 2002, said Dennis Edney, a lawyer who worked to secure his release from the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allowed the former prisoner to live at his home in Canada after his release.
Edney said Khadr was in intensive care and it was not clear how long it would take the 30-year-old to recover
Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops following a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of an American special forces medic, U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr, who was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer, was taken to Guantanamo and ultimately charged with war crimes by a military commission.
He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentenced to eight years plus the time he had already spent in custody. He returned to Canada two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress.
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