Timeline: Omar Khadr

September 19, 1986

Omar Khadr is born in Ottawa, Canada. Omar spent his childhood moving back and forth between Canada and Pakistan. His father, Ahmed Said Khadr ran orphanges and other charities in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

1996

Khadr's father moved his family to Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 1996. The family had connections to Osama bin Laden and the Khadr and bin Laden children played together. For a time, the Khadr's lived on the bin Laden compound.

Fall, 2001

After the September 11th attacks the Khadr family fled into the hills of Eastern Afghanistan. Now fifteen, Omar was given away to a grop of armed miliatants affliated with al-Qaeda to act as their translator.

A wounded Omar Khadr is attended to by medics

July 27, 2002

Omar Khadr is shot three times in a battle with American troops in Afghanistan. He is seriously wounded and loses the sight of one eye. He is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade. He recuperates and is held at Bagram.

October, 2002

Omar Khadr is transferred to Guantananamo Bay in Cuba. Since Khadr turned sixteen at Bagram, the U.S. does not apply their standard treatment for minors. Khadr is detained with adult prisoners and is interrogated repeatedly. Read an affadavit describing Khadr's treatment.

February, 2003

Canadian officials first interrogate Khadr in Cuba.

September 16, 2004

The U.S. Department of Defence releases unclassified documents that claim Omar Khadr has admitted to being a "terrorist."

February 9, 2005

Lawyers for Omar Khadr reveal that CSIS officials have interrogated their client in Cuba, and say the Canadian government has done little to protect his rights.

August 10, 2005

A Federal Court judge rules that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms extends to Omar Khadr, being held by Americans in Cuba, and that CSIS must stop interrogating him.

The American government claims that Khadr threw a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. As details of the battle emerge, it is now unclear who threw the grenade and whether the grenade could have belonged to the American troops.

November 7, 2005

Omar Khadr, held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is charged with murder and conspiracy. Khadr and four others charged with serious charges are entitled to "representation by a military defense counsel free of charge with the option to retain a civilian defense counsel at no expense to the U.S. government," according to a statement on the U.S. Department of Defence website.

January 9, 2006

U.S. authorities say Omar Khadr will appear before a military commission on January 11. The 19-year-old is accused of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and "aiding the enemy."

April 19, 2006

Omar Khadr's U.S. military attorney tries to have two Canadian lawyers officially added to the legal team defending Omar against murder charges. Lt.-Col. Colby Vokey says his client needs extra lawyers on his side, given what he calls the arbitrary nature of the military proceedings at Guantanamo.

June 4, 2007

On June 4, 2007, a U.S. military judge drops all charges against Omar Khadr because he is an "enemy combatant," and the military commissions have jurisdiction only over "unlawful enemy combatants."

September, 2007

A three-member appeal panel rules that the decision was in error and reinstates the charges against Khadr. Khadr's lawyers later filed an appeal, seeking to stop the U.S. military case against their client. A judge ordered in October that Khadr's trial proceed.

March 18, 2008

In an affidavit, Omar Khadr says U.S. military interrogators in Afghanistan threatened him with rape and treated him harshly, forcing him to make false statements. Read the affidavit.

April 17, 2008

A letter submitted in court filings by Omar Khadr's defence lawyers shows Canada asked the United States not to send Khadr to Guantanamo after he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002.

May 29, 2008

Omar Khadr's lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, says the U.S. military judge presiding over Khadr's trial has been fired.

June 3, 2008

Foreign Affairs documents report that U.S. soldiers guarding Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay have said that he is a "good kid" and "salvageable," but a prolonged detention at Guantanamo Bay could turn him into a radical. Read Foreign affairs documents, April and March.

July 10, 2008

Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeats vows to leave Omar Khadr's case in U.S. hands, despite reports a day earlier that Canadian officials knew of Omar's harsh treatment by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay.

July 15, 2008

Video is released of Canadian spy agents questioning Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay in February 2003. In the video, made public under a court order obtained by his lawyers, a teenaged Omar sobs uncontrollably and tells a Canadian Security Intelligence Service official several times: "You don't care about me."