Omar Khadr

By Monica Villamizar in Americas on August 12th, 2010
Photo by AFP

Omar Khadr is wearing a suit and a tie for the first time in his life. He stands up and smiles at the jury and says hello. 

Its 9:30am, the official start of his trial. The room is very cold, in contrast to the tropical humid Cuban weather outside court room number 1. Judge Colonel Patrick Parish has a calm tone of voice, he is often sarcastic but always firm. 

Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson, Khadr’s military lawyer, and Dennis Edney, a family legal advisor, accompany the youngest detainee in Guantanamo. Jackson is starting the process of jury selection. The military jury will determine if his client is guilty and also the sentence he should serve. 

By Monica Villamizar in Americas on August 9th, 2010
Picture from AFP

The first military commission trial of the Obama administration is set to get under way here at the sweltering US military base on the island of Cuba.

Along with 37 other journalists, I've been flown here by the Pentagon to observe and report on this military trial. It is my seventh time here. The mood is even more serious and uptight than normal: five colleagues were banned from Guantanamo earlier this year for publishing the name of an interrogator.

Their media organisations fought back and they were re-admitted. We've all been given new rules that expand the already strict procedures we must follow.

It's almost impossible to take a picture outside two or three locations and all television footage is examined frame-by-frame by a censor for "security" reasons. Agreeing to these rules is a condition for being allowed here.

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