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.