Canadian released from Guatanamo prison

A Canadian held at the US military jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has been released and sent to Afghanistan.

Abdulrhaman Khadr, 20, was released in late October, according to his grandmother and the Canadian foreign affairs spokesman.

Khadr is the son of a suspected al-Qaida financier, and one of his brothers also was being held at the Guantanamo prison.

Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for Canada’s foreign affairs department, said US authorities sent Khadr back to Afghanistan, where he had been captured last year. Doiron said it was Khadr’s choice to go to Afghanistan.

Khadr’s family, however, said Canada refused to accept him. His grandmother, Fatmah Elsamnah, said Khadr called her over the weekend from Yugoslavia and told her he had no passport or other documents, and was running out of borrowed money.

It was unclear how Khadr travelled from Afghanistan to Yugoslavia. He said he also went to Canadian consulates in Pakistan and Turkey to try to get a passport and plane ticket to Canada, but was rebuffed, according to lawyer Rocco Galati, who is representing the family.

“Canada is acting illegally, unconstitutionally and, arguably, in a criminal fashion,” said Galati, who is known for defending Muslims accused of terrorist connections in Canada.

Khadr and his youngest brother, Omar, 17, were among hundreds of suspects held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay. They were captured separately during the war in Afghanistan, and Omar is believed to still be held by the Americans.

Omar was captured July 27, 2002, after being wounded during a battle in which a US soldier was killed and four others were wounded.

Their father is Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen who was arrested in Pakistan in 1995 after the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad was bombed. He later was released, and his whereabouts are unknown.

The elder Khadr is believed to be an al-Qaida financier, and there were unconfirmed reports this year that he died in a gun battle in Pakistan.