Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s government won a hearing before the country’s highest court challenging a judge’s order to force the prime minister to seek the return of a terrorism suspect being held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Supreme Court of Canada today granted the government’s request for a hearing. The court agreed to speed up the appeal process and scheduled the hearing for Nov. 13.

A federal court judge earlier ordered Prime Minister Stephen Harper to seek Omar Khadr’s return, saying a refusal to do so violates the man’s constitutional rights. The Federal Court of Appeal on Aug. 14 upheld the ruling.

Khadr, who was born in Canada and is therefore a citizen, was arrested in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was 15 years old and accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a hand grenade. He has been imprisoned at Guantanamo since October 2002.

Khadr’s detention at Guantanamo is illegal under U.S. and international law, the trial judge, James O’Reilly of the Federal Court of Canada, said.

The Canadian government has “an ongoing policy against requesting Mr. Khadr’s repatriation” which “offends a principle of fundamental justice and violates Mr. Khadr’s rights,” O’Reilly found.

Canada’s position is that Khadr has been accused of serious crimes, including murder and spying, in violation of the laws of war, and is awaiting U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision on his case, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon said in a statement.

Obama Decisions

“The Obama administration has recently taken decisions to proceed with the closure of Guantanamo, halt the judiciary process and also to evaluate each of the cases,” Cannon said. “It is in our interest to wait for the outcome of these decisions.”

Canada’s opposition Liberal Party criticized the government for its stance.

“A Canadian is a Canadian,” Dan McTeague, the Liberal Consular Affairs Critic, said in a statement. “Mr. Harper doesn’t get that, content to leave Canada as the only nation to leave one of their citizens in the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.”

Khadr’s father Ahmad, originally from Pakistan, was arrested in 1995 and accused of involvement in the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. He was released from jail in 1996 and in 2001 moved his family to Afghanistan, where Omar Khadr and his brothers attended training camps run by al-Qaeda, according to court documents.

Omar Khadr was present during a gun battle near Khost, Afghanistan, where a U.S. soldier was killed by a grenade, court documents show. Khadr, who was injured in the gun battle, denied throwing the grenade.

The case is Between Omar Khadr and the Prime Minister of Canada, T-1228-08, Federal Court of Canada (Toronto).

To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Schneider in Toronto at jschneider5@bloomberg.net; Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 4, 2009 14:26 EDT