EDMONTON - A lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr says his client has been transferred out of a federal maximum security prison in Alberta.

John Phillips does not say where Khadr has been sent or when the move happened.

But a source tells The Canadian Press he was moved to Bowden Institution, a medium-security prison near the town of Innisfail.

The transfer had been expected for several weeks.

In a statement, Phillips says he hopes the move is a first step in getting Khadr the appropriate treatment he needs.

Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war crimes, including murder, for killing an American soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15.