Guantanamo judge questions if he can try Canadian

GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba, June 4 (Reuters) The military judge presiding at Omar Khadr's war crimes tribunal said today he might not have jurisdiction to try the young Canadian because of the way a new law authorising the trials was written.

Khadr sported a tan prison uniform and shaggy beard during a hearing at the US naval base in southeastern Cuba, which was recessed to allow time for the judge to review jurisdiction.

Army Col Peter Brownback said a military review board had labeled Khadr an ''enemy combatant'' during a 2004 hearing in Guantanamo. But the Military Commissions Act adopted by the US Congress in 2006 said only ''unlawful enemy combatants'' could be tried in the Guantanamo tribunals.

Brownback said he was not sure Khadr met that definition.

Khadr, who was captured in a firefight in Afghanistan at age 15, is accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade and wounding another in a battle at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.

He is also charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism in addition to murder and attempted murder, and with and spying for allegedly conducting surveillance of US military convoys in Afghanistan.

Reuters AM RS2150