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Judge delays Omar Khadr bail decision until Thursday

_ An Alberta judge has granted Omar Khadr bail pending his appeal against his conviction for war crimes in the United States.
Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, shown in this undated handout image from Bowden Institution, in Innisfail, Alberta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Bowden Institution

EDMONTON – An Alberta judge says she needs more time to make a decision on whether former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr should be released on bail.

Court of Appeal Justice Myra Bielby is expected to announce her decision Thursday morning.

The news followed a last-ditch attempt by the federal government to keep Khadr behind bars.

Ottawa argued Khadr’s release would damage Canada’s international relations.

A lower court judge had granted the Toronto-born Khadr bail while he appeals his war crimes conviction in the United States.

Twenty-eight-year-old Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war crimes – including murder for the death of an American special forces soldier – before a widely discredited U.S. military commission.

The alleged offences occurred in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was 15.

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