[JURIST] The US Office of Military Commissions [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder] has delayed a pretrial hearing for Omar Khadr [JURIST news archive], a Canadian citizen and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee charged with killing a US Special Forces soldier in Afghanistan, due to security issues that have emerged since the suicides of three Guantanamo prisoners [JURIST report]. A spokeswoman for the US military said that security guards at the US prison camp must take charged detainees to and from hearings at the courthouse, which would remove security forces from the main prison area and is a priority at the present time due to the suicide investigations.

Khadr is one of 10 prisoners who have actually been charged at Guantanamo out of the nearly 460 men currently detained there. He is charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] with throwing a grenade and killing a US Green Beret and also faces charges that he planted mines to blow up US convoys. The hearing for Khadr was scheduled to begin June 26, but the postponement of all pretrial hearings is being extended until July 7. The US government is also awaiting a decision by the US Supreme Court [official website] that will decide the legality of military commissions [JURIST report]. The high court is expected to rule on the issue before June 30. AP has more.