Guantanamo/Detainees
Lawyers, Senator Suggest Treaty Bars Gitmo Trial for Child Soldier
Posted Feb 7, 2008, 02:07 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A strong backer of the 2006 law establishing military commissions at Guantanamo Bay said this week he has reservations about using the tribunals to try juvenile detainees.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), "I'm not comfortable on an issue like this with minors.” He suggested that a 2002 treaty, the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, was passed to protect children who were forced into combat.
Graham’s reservations echo the arguments by lawyers defending Omar Khadr, accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. He was captured in the 2002 battle at the age of 15.
Khadr’s lawyers say the 2002 protocol indicates a U.S. commitment to treat child soldiers as victims, the article says. Prosecutors had argued the 2006 military commissions law makes no exception for child soldiers. A military judge has not yet ruled on the issue.
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