Omar Khadr in his own words: The opening statement

Shortly after the U.S. military commission convened here at Guantanamo Bay US Naval Station, Canadian Omar Khadr, accused of various war crimes, was invited to read a statement he had prepared. The statement was later distributed to reporters here. It is written, in his own hand, with red ink and blue ink on a lined sheet of paper that is titled “Arabic-English language class”. (Khadr told the court, incidentally, he speaks English, Arabic, Farsi and Pashtun).

Here is what he wrote and I have left his punctuation, spelling, and strikeouts.

Your honor I'm boycotting this Military Commission because *firstly the unfairness and unjustice of it. I say this because not one of the lawyers I've had, or human right organization or any person ever say that this Commission is fair or looking for justice, but on the Contrary, they say its unfair and unjust and that it has been constructed to convict detainees not to find the truth (so how can i ask for justice from a process that does not have it or offer it) and to accomplish political and public goal and what I mean is when I was offered a plea bargain it was up to 30 years which I was going to spend only 5 years so I asked why the 30 years. I was told it make the US government look good in the public's eyes and other political causes.

*Secondly: The unfairness of the rules that will make a person so depressed that he will admit to alligations made upon him as take a plea offer that will satisfy the US government and get him the least sentence possible and ligitimize the sham process therefore I will not willingly let the US gov use me to fulfil its goal. I have been used to meny times when i was a child and that's why I'm here taking blame and paying for thing I didn't have a choice in doing but was told to do by elders.

*lastly, I will not take any plea offer or continue in this process because it will give excuse for the gov for torturing and abusing me when I was a child.