GATINEAU, Que. (CP) - A military court-martial inquiry will meet in September to determine whether a former Canadian soldier should face charges in the death of a Somali youth more than a decade ago.
Lawyers decided on Tuesday that Clayton Matchee will appear at a hearing on Sept. 21 at HMCS Unicorn, a land-based ship in Saskatchewan.
Matchee was charged in the 1993 death of 16-year-old Shidane Arone but was declared unfit to stand trial the following year because of brain damage suffered in a suicide attempt after he was arrested.
Every two years prosecutors have to prove they still have evidence to maintain second-degree murder charges in case the former paratrooper recovers.
Arone's torture and murder tarnished Canada's reputation as a military peacekeeper and led to the disbanding of Matchee's outfit, the Canadian Airborne Regiment.
Prosecutor Maj. Bruce MacGregor has said the military will continue to maintain the charges against Matchee as long as there is evidence and it is in the public interest.
In the past, prosecutors relied on evidence from Kyle Brown, a former private in the Airborne Regiment, who was convicted of manslaughter and torture in Arone's death and sentenced to five years.
Matchee's family had pleaded at a 2002 hearing to let the charges drop after doctors said there is no hope for his recovery.
The gaunt, greying former soldier attended the 2002 hearing looking like a shadow of the tough-looking paratrooper in an infamous photo of the torture session.
Defence lawyer Maj. Gord Duncan is expected to ask Cmdr. Peter Lamonte to stay the proceedings or dismiss the case against Matchee.
Matchee was one of eight soldiers to face charges after Arone's death.
He tried to hang himself with bootlaces after he was arrested in Somalia.
He was released from the military on medical grounds in April 1995 and has since lived at a psychiatric hospital in North Battleford, Sask., northwest of Saskatoon.