Canadian at Gitmo Pleads Guilty to All Charges

A Canadian prisoner at Guantanamo accused of killing an American soldier has pleaded guilty to all charges. Omar Khadr—who had been facing a possible life sentence—pleaded to five charges including murder in a plea agreement with military authorities. The terms of the plea deal have not yet been disclosed. The military will now hold a sentencing hearing before a jury of military officers.

Khadr, the last Westerner held at Guantanamo, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed US Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer in Afghanistan in 2002. The US says Khadr, who was seriously wounded in the firefight, is a war criminal because he was not a legitimate soldier; his defenders say he was a child soldier pushed into militancy by his father. He was 15 at the time of his capture and has been in US custody, and legal limbo, for eight years. (More Omar Khadr stories.)