U.S. court rejects Omar Khadr’s bid to force military to hear war-crimes appeal

An American civilian court has refused to order a military court to decide an appeal from former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr.

In a brief decision this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied Khadr’s request to force the issue.

“At this time, (Khadr) has not demonstrated a ‘clear and indisputable right’ to the extraordinary remedy,” the court said.

American troops captured Khadr, 33, as a badly wounded 15-year-old in Afghanistan in July 2002. He pleaded guilty to five war crimes, including the murder of a U.S. special forces soldier, before a widely disparaged military commission in 2010. As part of the plea deal, the court sentenced him to eight more years rather than to the jury-recommended 40 years.