The former Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr wants a chance to speak to the media for the first time and is asking the federal government and the corrections system to allow him to do so.
The request is contained in a letter to the warden of the prison in Edmonton where Khadr is currently imprisoned. It was included in a Federal Court filing on Tuesday.
A similar request was rejected last year by the office of then Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
In 2010, the Toronto-born Khadr pleaded guilty to five war-crimes charges, including murder, for killing an American soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15.
He was accused of throwing a grenade that killed Sergeant Christopher Speer during a battle at an Afghan compound in July 2002.
After spending 10 years in Guantanamo Bay, Khadr was sentenced by a U.S. military commission to an additional eight years and sent to Canada.
Earlier this month, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that the 27-year-old Khadr should be serving a youth sentence in Canada and not housed in a federal prison.
Shortly after the ruling, federal Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Ottawa will apply to delay the transfer while it asks the Supreme Court to hear the case. Mr. Blaney said a youth sentence is not appropriate for Khadr.
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