Omar Khadr, Guantanamo detainee, heads back to Canada

GlobalPost

Omar Khadr landed in Trenton, Ontario from Guantanamo Bay Saturday morning. Khadr is the last Western Guantanamo detainee to be repatriated. 

Khadr, a Toronto native, plead guilty in 2010 to five war crimes charges, including the murder of US Army sergeant Christopher Speer in a firefight in Afghanistan 2002. 

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said that Khadr was being transported to to the Millhaven Institution in Ontario, where he will serve the remainder of his sentence. 

"I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration," Toews said in a statement, CBC News reported. "Any decisions related to his future will be determined by the independent Parole Board of Canada in accordance with Canadian law." 

More from GlobalPost: Last westerner at Guantanamo asks for transfer to Canada

Because of his guilty plea, Khadr was given a reduced sentence of 8 years, and was eligible to serve the rest of his sentence in Canada after the first year, CTV News reported

The 26-year-old was just 15 when he was arrested in Afghanistan, and has spent the past 10 years at Guantanamo, according to the Associated Press

He is only the second convicted war criminal to be sent home as a result of a plea deal under President Obama, CTV News reported. Bush also repatriated two criminals. 

“It’s a pattern of ‘If you make a deal with the Americans, they do let you go back to detention in your home,’” Miami Herald journalist Carol Rosenberg, who has been covering Guantanamo for nearly a decade, told CTV. 

More from GlobalPost: First Guantanamo trial under Obama begins

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