Washington, October 28: Defense lawyers of a child soldier allegedly affiliated with Al-Qaeda and detained in Guantanamo have questioned the validity of the psychiatric evaluation of their client.
In June, a Pentagon psychiatrist, Michael Welner, announced that Khadr was “highly dangerous and deeply resentful” for being incarcerated for eight years.
At a Wednesday hearing of the case of Guantanamo Bay detainee, Omar Khadr, the defense lawyers argued that the psychiatrist’s prognosis is based on the controversial work of a Danish psychologist, Nicolai Sennels, who has anti-Muslim beliefs and contends it is not possible to integrate Muslims in the Western society, AFP reported.
Lawyers for Khadr dismiss the evaluation as hearsay, arguing that Walner’s assessments rely heavily on interviews with Sennels whose works are purely biased.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon psychiatrist has admitted to having been in contact with the Dane by phone.
Khadr, who was 15 when wounded and detained in 2002 by the US military in Afghanistan in violation of the laws of war, was charged at his Monday trial with murder, conspiracy, providing material assistance to a terrorist organization and espionage.
At the trial, the Canadian citizen pleaded guilty that he killed a US soldier by throwing off a grenade during a July 2002 raid on an al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan.
On January 22, 2009, US President Barack Obama signed executive orders directing the closure of the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention camp within a year and the immediate case-by-case review of detainees still held at the facility. Obama’s orders have not yet been carried out.
——-Agencies