TORONTO – Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr has landed in Toronto on Thursday for a court-approved visit to his grandparents.
Khadr’s lawyer Dennis Edney says Khadr arrived in Toronto from Edmonton, dispelling earlier doubts that he might have been on Canada’s no-fly list, which could have prevented him from travelling.
Khadr’s visit comes after an Edmonton judge eased his bail conditions last month, allowing him to travel to Toronto with one of his lawyers for a period of up to two weeks.
READ MORE: A chronological look at Omar Khadr’s long legal odyssey
The Toronto-born Khadr, now 29, was 15 when he was captured following a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002, and became the youngest prisoner and lone Westerner at the time to be held in Guantanamo.
He pleaded guilty in 2010 to several war crimes, including the murder of an American soldier. A United States military commission sentenced him to another eight years behind bars. He was transferred to Canada in 2012 on a U.S. military plane.
Khadr later said he only pleaded guilty to get out of Guantanamo.
He was granted bail in May, pending his appeal of the convictions in the U.S.
READ MORE: Is Omar Khadr a child soldier? Explaining the murky debate
Justice June Ross later said that Khadr’s grandmother was ill and there was no reason why he shouldn’t be able to visit his grandparents in Toronto.
Ross ruled that Khadr can also take off his electronic monitoring bracelet, which he argued was embarrassing and interfered with activities such as biking, swimming and playing soccer.
The federal government is appealing Khadr’s release on bail.
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