Canadian pleads guilty at Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Eight years after he was taken to Guantanamo as a teenage prisoner, a Canadian pleaded guilty Monday to killing a U.S. Army sergeant during a battle in Afghanistan, in a deal that will send him home in a year to serve his sentence.

Defenders say Omar Khadr, who was 15 at the time of his capture, was a "child soldier" pushed into becoming an al-Qaida fighter by his father, an associate of Osama bin Laden.

The plea deal ends a widely criticized trial that made the United States the first Western nation since World War II to prosecute a child offender for alleged war crimes. The exact terms were not immediately disclosed, but Khadr's sentence was reportedly capped at eight years, in addition to time already spent at the Guantanamo detention camp.

The now 24-year-old prisoner, who was seriously wounded when he was seized in a gunbattle in 2002, admitted to throwing a grenade that killed a special forces medic during a fierce raid on an al-Qaida compound. He also pleaded guilty to building and planting roadside bombs and receiving weapons training from al-Qaida. He is the last Western detainee at Guantanamo.

The Toronto-born Khadr's trial had been scheduled to start Monday and he faced a possible life sentence.

The chief military prosecutor, Navy Capt. John F. Murphy, said the government welcomed the deal, which was initiated by the defense, because it removes any doubt about Khadr's guilt.

"What you saw puts a lie to the long-standing argument by some that Omar Khadr is a victim," Murphy told reporters in an aircraft hangar near the courthouse on the U.S. base in Cuba. "He's not. He is a murderer and he is convicted by the strength of his own words."

Khadr did not explain why he changed his plea, though Dennis Edney, one of his Canadian attorneys, said it was a "very, very difficult" decision made only because Canada agreed to repatriate him after a year.

It came down to a choice between a trial his lawyers called "illegal" and going home - and he chose the latter, Edney said.

"We have reviewed the evidence. ... We have looked at the circumstances and it's our clear opinion that Mr. Khadr is an innocent man, that Mr. Khadr was put into a hellish conflict and continues to remain in this hellhole that has a record internationally of abuse," Edney said.

Khadr faces a sentencing hearing that begins Tuesday before a military jury. The panel cannot impose a sentence more severe than the plea agreement, but could issue one that is more lenient.

Army Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, the Pentagon-appointed military defense lawyer, said he would seek to contradict the image of a hardened terrorist presented by prosecutors. "I look forward to proving to the panel and the world that Omar Khadr is a kind, compassionate, and decent young man who deserves a first chance at a meaningful life," he said.

Khadr had previously pleaded innocent and resisted efforts to settle his case. But on Monday, dressed in a dark suit instead of the jumpsuits typically worn by Guantanamo prisoners, he calmly answered a series of questions from the judge to make sure he understood his decision.

Staring down at the defense table without making eye contact, Khadr was asked if anyone had made any promises to him so that he would plead guilty. He answered simply "no."