EDMONTON – Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr has made his first public appearance in 11 years.

Wearing a white polo shirt and sporting a full beard, the 27-year-old smiled as he was escorted into an Edmonton courtroom.

His lawyer is arguing that he should be moved from a maximum security prison to a provincial jail.

The Toronto-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by American soldiers in Afghanistan.

In 2010, he pleaded guilty to war crimes before a U.S. military commission and was sentenced to eight years.

He was transferred to Canada last fall.

The federal government opposes the application for a move and argues Khadr has been appropriately placed in an adult maximum security facility.

The legal arguments underpinning the application and government’s response are technical and based on provisions of the International Transfer of Offenders Act.

Transferred to Canada in September 2012, Khadr was first incarcerated largely in isolation at the maximum security Millhaven Institution in eastern Ontario before moving to the maximum security Edmonton Institution in May.

The federal government, which blocked a request by The Canadian Press earlier this year to interview him, insists Khadr is a dangerous terrorist who deserves to be treated as such.