Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (CNN) -- Final preparations were underway Sunday for what will be the Obama administration's first full military commission hearing, set to begin this week.
A few hours after an 8 a.m. recording of the national anthem that blared across Guantanamo's Camp Justice, attorneys for the Military Commission -- both prosecutors and defense attorneys -- met with judges to plot out the procedures and schedules of what could play out in the courtroom this week.
Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, the youngest detainee in the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was only 15. Now 23, he is set to go on trial, charged with terrorist acts for al Qaeda and the killing of a U.S. Special Forces soldier.
His Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, tried and failed to have the trial stopped -- the Supreme Court denied his request Friday.
Monday will be devoted to dealing with motions, Jackson said, predicting the panel of 15 members of the U.S. military that will act as a jury will be seated by the end of the day on Tuesday.
The government said late Sunday it expected the commission trial to begin on schedule, and that it could last as long as four weeks. Navy Capt. David Iglesias, a former federal prosecutor and also part of the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps, said if Khadr is convicted of serious charges, "the government will ask for life" in prison.
When the case begins, the Canadian branch of Amnesty International will be inside the courtroom.
Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, ripped into both the U.S. and Canadian governments for not halting the terrorism trial. CNN
