Canada ‘paid $8m’ to Omar Khadr, ex-Guantanamo detainee

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Khadr was repatriated in 2012 after agreeing to a plea deal to leave Guantanamo and serve the majority of his eight-year sentence in Canada. He was released on bail in Canada in 2015.

His case has long divided public opinion in Canada.

His defenders describe him as a child soldier. Others argue he was a radicalised fighter at the time of his capture.

Khadr was taken to Afghanistan by his father, a member of the al-Qaeda terror network. He spent his childhood in Canada and Pakistan.

News that Khadr would be receiving compensation re-ignited the controversy.

A petition by low tax advocacy group The Canadian Taxpayers Federation collected over 50,000 signatures in two days opposing any compensation for Khadr.

In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation released on Friday, Khadr said he was now a different person from the teenager captured in Afghanistan.

He said he hoped the “talk about settlement or the apology does not cause people pain and if it does, you know, I’m really sorry for the pain”.

Source: BBC World News