Extradition from Canada to the United States—Abdullah Khadr

Acting on an American arrest warrant, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 24 year-old (some sources put his age at 25) Abdullah Khadr on Saturday night.^[1] Mr. Khadr is accused of plotting to kill American soldiers abroad; specifically, according to his lawyer, possession and use of a destructive device to further a crime of violence, and conspiracy to murder a US national outside the United States.^[2] According to the press release issued by US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, the charges facing Mr. Khadr are possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence, and conspiracy to possess a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence.^[3] These charges are similar to those facing Wesam al Delaema, whose extradition from the Netherlands we have discussed previously.

Mr. Khadr had just returned to Canada after having been held by in a Pakistani jail for more than a year.^[4] It is not clearly known why Mr. Khadr had been held in Pakistan, but his lawyer claims that the United States participated in the “abuse of Mr. Khadr for the past 18 months in a Pakistani prison,” and that the US had pressed Mr. Khadr for “evidence against persons of interest to the U.S., people whom [Mr. Khadr] didn’t know.”^[5]

Extradition hearings are expected for Mr. Khadr, and according to Bloomberg, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan has even said that Mr. Khadr will be extradited.^[6] However, the Bloomberg story seems to based on a misreading of Mr. Sullivan’s press release that merely says that Mr. Khadr had been arrested “on a provisional arrest warrant for extradition to the United States to face charges related to his alleged procurement of munitions for Al Qaeda.”^[7] The same press releases states that Mr. Khadr “told FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force agents that he was asked to [procure munitions] by his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, [who was] allegedly a colleague of Usama Bin Laden.”^[8] According to the Associated Press, however, Mr. Khadr denies any involvement with al Qaeda, apart from attending a training camp in Afghanistan at the age of 13, which he claims had nothing to do with terrorism.^[9] These discrepancies raise questions of when Mr. Khadr was questioned by the FBI, and how this information was obtained. As his case progresses, hopefully some of the conflicting reports in the media will be straightened out.

Provisional arrests in expectation of extradition are covered by article 11 of the extradition treaty between the United States and Canada. In such situations, the application for a provisional arrest “shall contain a description of the person sought, an indication of intention to request the extradition of the person sought and a statement of a warrant of arrest … and such information, if any, as would be necessary to justify the issue of a warrant of arrest had the offense been committed … in the territory of the requested State.”^[10] The requesting state then has 45 days to formally request the extradition of the suspect.^[11] The formal extradition request must be accompanied by a description of the person sought, a statement of the facts of the case, the text of the laws in the requesting state which describe the offense and the punishment for the offense.^[12] It must also be accompanied by an arrest warrant signed by a judge, and “such evidence as, according to the laws of the requested State, would justify his arrest and committal for trial if the offense had been committed there.”^[13]

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[1] See Canada Jails U.S. Terror Suspect, Wash. Post, Dec. 19, 2005; Canadian Accused of Buying Munitions for Al-Qaeda, Bloomberg, Dec. 18, 2005; Accused of Buying Weapons for al-Qaeda, Khadr to Appear in Court, CBC News, Dec. 19, 2005.
[2] CBC News, supra note 1.
[3] US Attorneys Office, Press Release: Canadian National Arrested by Canadian Authorities for Extradition to the United States to Face Charges Related to the Procurement of Munitions for Al Qaeda, Dec. 18, 2005 [hereinafter USAO].
[4] See CBC News, supra note 1; Wash. Post, supra note 1; Bloomberg, supra note 1.
[5] Wash. Post, supra note 1.
[6] Bloomberg, supra note 1.
[7] USAO, supra note 3.
[8] Id.
[9] Rob Gillies, Son of Family Linked to Terror is Caught, Associated Press (via ABC News), Dec. 18, 2005, at 2.
[10] Extradition Treaty, Dec. 3, 1971, U.S. Can. Art. 11, para. 1, 27 U.S.T. 983.
[11] Id. art. 11, para. 3.
[12] Id. art. 9, para. 1.
[13] Id. art. 9, para. 2.