WATCH ABOVE: Omar Khadr will have to wait to find out if an Alberta court will grant him freedom. Kendra Slugoski explains.
EDMONTON — An Edmonton judge says she needs time to decide whether a former Guantanamo Bay inmate should get bail.
A two-day hearing has concluded for Omar Khadr and the judge is to give her decision at a later date.
Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war-crimes charges, including murder, for killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when Khadr was 15.
Now 28, he is more than halfway through an eight-year sentence and is a prisoner at Bowden Institution in central Alberta.
Khadr’s lawyers say he should be released while he appeals his war-crimes conviction before a U.S. military court because the process is taking too long.
READ MORE: Lawyer argues Khadr has right to bail like any other prisoner in Canada
Federal government lawyers argue that letting Khadr out would undermine public confidence in the justice system, subvert international law and damage Canada’s relationship with the United States.
If released on bail, Khadr plans to live in Edmonton with one of his lawyers, and a university has agreed to let him enrol as a student.
With files from Global News
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