Human rights groups call on Obama to halt trial

US president-elect Barack Obama has been urged to intervene to stop a trial of a young man who is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Five leading human rights and civil liberties groups have delivered a letter to Mr Obama, calling on him to suspend the Guantanamo Bay military commissions and to ensure that the upcoming trial of Omar Khadr, a 22-year-old Canadian, does not proceed.

Mr Khadr's trial is scheduled to begin on January 26th, six days after the presidential inauguration.

Mr Khadr is set to be tried before the commissions for war crimes he is alleged to have committed when he was 15. However, the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch have called on the president-elect to drop the military commission charges against Khadr. Instead, the groups want Mr Khada to be either repatriated back to Canada or, if there is evidence to support it, to prosecute him in US federal courts in accordance with international juvenile justice and fair trial standards.

In their letter to the president-elect, the groups also called on Mr Obama to immediately suspend pending proceedings against Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who is also charged before the military commissions for crimes allegedly committed when he was 16 or 17.

A military judge has twice ruled that statements Mr Jawad made following his arrest were not admissible at trial because they were obtained through torture. However, the government has challenged the ruling and the Court of Military Commission Review in Washington, DC, is scheduled to hear arguments next Tuesday.

The groups told Mr Obama that the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict is a serious abuse in itself. and said that no existing international tribunal has ever prosecuted a child for war crimes.