U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO, Cuba – Seven U.S. military officers will sit in judgment of Omar Khadr after the military judge in the case excused eight others from the initial jury pool – in reaction to opposition from either the defence or the prosecution.
The selection of the "commission members" clears the way for opening arguments to begin Thursday in the war crimes trial of the Canadian-born terror suspect at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Army Col. Patrick Parrish denied a prosecution bid to remove from the jury pool an army lieutenant-colonel who has declared his support for closing the Guantanamo detention camps and questioned the legitimacy of at least one of the five charges Khadr faces.
But the officer ended up ejected anyway when the prosecution exercised the power both it and the defence have to reject one prospective jury member without having to show cause.
The defence also used its power of "peremptory challenge" to eject an army colonel who had been involved in peacekeeping operations during his career, but who had also talked about knowing someone who had been a victim of roadside bomb attacks.
Indeed, with the prosecution set to present a video at trial that apparently shows Khadr helping make and plant roadside bombs – or improvised explosive devices – the defence sought to have the judge eject several other officers who had mentioned they personally knew IED victims.
The defence was successful in having five officers ejected, in addition to the army colonel, or all that it had sought. For its part, the prosecution sought to have three officers ejected, but was successful only in two cases.
The support of three-fourths of the commission members is needed for the prosecution to secure a conviction against Khadr, whose most serious charge is one of murder in the grenade death of a U.S. serviceman during a 2002 firefight when the Toronto native was 15 years old.
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