 [Iran Press TV Latest] A young Canadian prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has rejected a plea deal that would allow him to serve a shorter prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to a war crime.
"I will not take any of the offers because it'll give the US government an excuse for torturing me and abusing me when I was a child," AFP quoted Omar Khadr as telling a military tribunal at the Guantanamo detention facility on Monday.
| Ah yes, the young lion cub of the Khadr family. His father called on the great Emir Osama bin Laden when they lived in Afghanistan, and young Omar played with the bin Laden boys. Later he was fostered with another emir, which didn't turn out as well as his fond papa hoped. |
Khadr confirmed that US officials have offered him a plea deal. According to the deal, if he pleads guilty to committing a war crime, he will receive a five-year prison sentence instead of the 30 years he faces.
Khadr, the last Westerner at Guantanamo, has dismissed his defense team for the third time and says he will not attend the proceedings.
"It's going to be the same thing with lawyers or without lawyers. It's gonna be a life sentence," Khadr said.
Khadr, who is now 23 years old, was 15 when US forces in Afghanistan took him prisoner in 2002. He was later charged with war crimes based on the allegation that he threw a grenade that killed a US soldier.
| Fifteen is old enough to know that a grenade goes kaboom when you throw it ... |
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