Trial to hear how the years changed a teen terrorist

In 2002, when Omar Khadr was a teenager, he followed his father on to the battlefields of Afghanistan, inspired by jihadist literature calling on Muslims to fight a holy war against Western invaders.

Eight years after his capture by American forces and his rehabilitation at Guantanamo Bay, the 23-year-old's reading tastes now include JK Rowling's stories about a British schoolboy who finds himself caught up in a battle against the powers of evil.

Khadr's transformation from child soldier to bibliophile shows how much he has grown up since his childhood days playing with the family of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Today he is charged with war crimes against America at a trial before a military commission in a courtroom in Guantanamo Bay. He is accused of killing an American soldier with a hand grenade.

His lawyers describe him as a gracious young man who wants to show the world how much he has changed.

The Khadr children had a strict Islamic upbringing in Pakistan before moving to Canada in 1992. Four years later, Omar's father moved them to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where they often visited Osama bin Laden's compound. In 2003, his father - an alleged al Qaeda financier - was killed by Pakistani forces in a shoot-out near the Afghanistan border.

Omar's younger brother Abdulkareem was left a paraplegic in the same battle. His older brother Abdullah, now 29, returned to Canada in 2005. He was arrested and faces extradition to the US on terrorism charges.

The white uniform that Khadr wore to court this week shows the Americans believe the man they accuse of war crimes is a model prisoner: detainees who refuse to co-operate must wear different coloured clothing.

Khadr enjoys lenient treatment at Camp 4 on the southeast side of the island where detainees can mix outdoors with one another for up to 20 hours a day, and have access to an exercise yard for two hours a day.

There is also a television room where films, nature programmes and highlights of international football games are shown.

This is a world away from his earlier detention. He was first held in an interrogation centre in Bagram in Afghanistan. He claims he was abused and threatened with rape and death, and alleges US soldiers once used him as a human mop to clean the floor because he had urinated on himself.

Today he spends his time in the camp library and running around the compound, but blames inadequate training shoes for a debilitating ankle injury. He has back pains and is worried about his left eye which was almost blinded in the battle in which he was captured.

A member of the Canadian Foreign Affairs office who visited Khadr at Guantanamo in 2008 reported the detainee chose to sleep on the floor rather than in his bed because of his back pains and the stomach aches which he claims are caused by the American shrapnel inside his body.

But despite his rehabilitation, Guantanamo is a frustrating place to live. This was demonstrated when the camp guards refused to give Khadr a pillow because of security fears.

The Canadian report concluded that this incident was difficult to justify, especially as Khadr is "salvageable", "non-radicalised" and a "good kid". According to the Canadians, Khadr believes he is a victim of his upbringing and seeks to redirect his life. "He said that he is in Guantanamo because of his family and that he wants another chance," the author wrote. "He wants to train for a job that will allow him to play a useful role in society by helping others."

But the court was shown another side of Omar Khadr that betrayed his residual hostility towards the West. In a video screened at his tribunal, Khadr is seen telling guards trying to weigh him for the International Red Cross "God will take ... revenge" on the US. "I am here in prison, but there are millions of people outside," he says in the clip from May 2006. "What's happening to you is not for nothing."

Khadr alleged guards mistreated him during the weighing session, claiming they "pressed on my pressure points". But the clip appears to show guards acting with restraint.

Although Khadr spent 20 minutes resisting the guards, the tape hinted he had been playing to the camera as he switched from English to Arabic to speak to detainees in nearby cells.

His Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, said his protests were the peevish behaviour of a young man whose manly appearance belied his juvenile mental state.

IN THE DOCK: INDOCTRINATED AS A CHILD, HELD AT 15

* Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured after a battle in July 2002 with US forces in Afghanistan. Now 23, he is finally having his day in court. If found guilty, he will be only the fifth terror suspect to be convicted in the eight years since George W. Bush created the first military commissions at Guantanamo. He will be the first under the Obama Administration.

* Khadr was 9 when his father, an alleged al Qaeda financier, took him from Canada to Afghanistan and introduced him to the world of jihad.

* Psychiatrists are expected to testify this week that Khadr viewed al Qaeda through the eyes of a child who didn't understand that his father's activities were linked to terrorism. It appears that his indoctrination led him to take up arms against US-led coalition troops after the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
*
Under international law, a child captured in combat should be treated as a victim. The US military has accused him of killing a US soldier with a hand grenade and spying on the US.

* Even his military defence team alleges that his confessions were extracted under torture. The US prosecutors insist that he was not tortured and that all his statements were made voluntarily.

- Independent