OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Lawyers for accused terrorist Omar Khadr are expressing guarded optimism that Canada’s top court will heed his plea for help in defending himself against a U.S. murder charge.

“We got a fair hearing,” Dennis Edney, one of Khadr’s legal team, said Wednesday after a three-hour session at the Supreme Court of Canada.

“Some very pertinent questions were asked. The court were alive to conditions in Guantanamo Bay, they were alive to the conduct of Canadian officials.”

The Canadian-born Khadr, currently languishing in a cell at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, is facing trial before a military tribunal there for allegedly killing an American soldier in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002.

He wants the Supreme Court to order the Canadian government to release documents to him that he hopes will aid his defence – a demand so far stoutly resisted by Ottawa.

Justice Department lawyer Rob Frater insisted Wednesday the Charter of Rights can’t be used to compel the disclosure Khadr wants because the charges he’s facing were laid outside Canada.

“The right to receive pre-trial disclosure is a right protected by the Charter for persons accused of crimes in Canada,” Frater told the high court. “It is not engaged by a foreign prosecution.”

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