Canadian indicted on terrorist weapons charges
BOSTON --A Canadian national whose father allegedly was an associate of Osama bin Laden was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Boston on charges he supplied the al-Qaida terror network with weapons.
Abdullah Khadr, 24, has been held in Canada on an extradition warrant since his Dec. 17 arrest in Toronto.
The indictment alleges Khadr bought AK-47 and mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and containers of mine components for al-Qaida for use against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Khadr is a son of Ahmed Said Khadr, an alleged al-Qaida financier and friend of bin Laden, the indictment says.
Khadr bought the weapons at the request of his Egyptian-born Canadian father, who was killed in 2003 when a Pakistani helicopter fired on a house where he was staying with other senior al-Qaida operatives, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan announced the indictment in Boston.
A Canadian judge in December denied bail for Khadr, saying his alleged terrorist links make him a flight risk.
Authorities claim Khadr confessed during questioning, but his lawyer argued in December that the confessions were derived by torture. Khadr said he was tortured by Pakistani authorities in a Pakistani prison where he was detained without charges in October 2004.
Pakistani intelligence officers detained him in Islamabad on Oct. 12, 2004, and he was returned to Canada last December. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested him at the request of the United States.
