Amnesty slams Canada for rights abuse

Shetty pressed Ottawa to seek the repatriation of Omar Khadr,
the last Westerner held in Guantamo Bay

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139877.html

Amnesty International's new secretary general has sharply criticized the Canadian government for its "serious" human rights violations.

Salil Shetty told the CIVICUS World Assembly on Citizen Participation on Monday that Amnesty International is increasingly concerned "about the serious worsening" of Canada's human rights approach.

"There is a real shrinking of democratic spaces in this country... Many organizations have lost their funding for raising inconvenient questions," AFP quoted Shetty as saying.

He also pressed Ottawa to seek the repatriation of a Canadian detainee, Omar Khadr, held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Shetty said that the prisoner's detention was "unlawful" and that his trial, held this month before a US military tribunal, was "unjust."

Khadr was only 15 years old when he was captured by US troops in Afghanistan eight years ago.

He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier during a gun battle in 2002.

Khadr, who has spent one-third of his life in Guantanamo, says he was tortured while being interrogated and forced to provide false confessions.

In a sworn statement, the traumatized Canadian said he was beaten, subjected to long periods in solitary confinement, doused in freezing water, spat on, chained in painful positions, terrorized by barking dogs and subjected to sleep deprivation and threats of rape.