Mohamed Harkat facing deportation to Algeria

[Al-khiyal]

OTTAWA, May 12, 2007 -- A Federal Court judge has shut down the government's attempt to deport Mohamed Harkat before Parliament puts in place a security-certificate law that conforms to the Constitution.

Judge Francois Lemieux on Friday ordered a permanent stay on the process leading to Harkat's removal to Algeria.

The federal government had been seeking to move ahead with that removal - even though the Supreme Court of Canada has said the hearing that found Harkat to be a terrorist is fundamentally unjust.

Harkat, an Algerian refugee, was working as a gas station attendant in Ottawa when he was taken into custody on the strength of a security certificate in 2002 and accused of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent.

Lemieux said Harkat could be denied the benefit of the Supreme Court's decision if the deportation process was allowed to proceed.

Harkat's lawyer, Paul Copeland, said the judge's decision brought his client an immense sense of relief. Harkat fears he will be tortured or killed if returned to his native land.

"But it struck me as nuts that we even had to argue the application," Copeland said.

The decision to pursue Harkat's deportation, he said, is the latest in a series of "strange decisions" made by the government during the lengthy security certificate litigation process.

In February, the Supreme Court gave Ottawa one year in which to devise a new, fairer security-certificate review process. The high court said the existing process is so secretive as to deny defendants the fundamental right to meet the case against them.

Lemieux ruled Harkat's deportation should not proceed based on evidence the Supreme Court has deemed to be flawed.

"At worst ... if Mr. Harkat was deported to Algeria within the one-year suspension period, the relief provided by the Supreme Court of Canada to remedy the violation of his charter rights would be nugatory," Lemieux wrote in his 29-page judgment.

The judge also rejected the contention of federal lawyer Donald MacIntosh, who had said the government is "duty bound" to pursue Harkat's deportation.

MacIntosh had argued that Harkat, because he's detained under provisions of immigration law, would have to be released unconditionally if the government did not make an attempt to deport him.

Lemieux, however, said Harkat's status has not changed because the security certificate issued against him remains lawful.

Harkat was released from jail last year on strict bail conditions that keep him largely confined to the Ottawa home he shares with his wife and mother-in-law.

Harkat has been under a deportation order since March 2005 when Judge Eleanor Dawson upheld as reasonable the security certificate issued against him. Dawson concluded Harkat was a terrorist threat based largely on evidence heard in secret.

That same evidence was reviewed last year by a federal official, James Shultz, who concluded Harkat poses such a dire threat to national security that he should be deported to Algeria, despite concerns that he will be tortured.

That decision had been scheduled to be the subject of a judicial review next week, but the case is now officially on hold.

It's expected Harkat will have another security certificate issued against him after the government devises its new review process.

After judge's decision, Harket won't be deported

[Al-khiyal]

May 20, 2007 -- Sophie Harkat, the wife of an Algerian refugee who was detained under a security certificate and accused of being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, urged several hundred Muslims yesterday to lobby politicians for a fair trial for her husband and others who have also been detained under the controversial law.

"Let's assure that justice prevails," she told Muslims attending the Islamic Society of North America conference at the Congress Centre. "Injustice to one is injustice to all."

A former gas station attendant, Mr. Harkat was arrested in 2002 while taking out the garbage outside their house. Since then, Ms. Harkat told the crowd, their lives have been turned upside down.

"The past few years have been a roller coaster of emotions, stress, anxiety and a complete nightmare for my husband and family," she said.

"And it continues to be."

After spending more than three years in detention, Mr. Harkat was released, under what Ms. Harkat called "the strictest bail conditions in Canadian history."

"We do not even have a PlayStation because it has an Internet chip in it," she said.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the security certificate review process was unconstitutional, and gave the federal government one year to revise it.

At least for now, Mr. Harkat will avoid deportation to Algeria. Earlier this month, a Federal Court judge ordered a stay on Mr. Harkat's deportation process.

The conference session, which focused on civil liberties and national security policies, drew a wide-range of listeners, from two men in white vests with "Canada" emblazoned on the back to girls wearing hijabs.

Ms. Harkat also spoke about her husband's time in detention: He did not see a toothbrush in the first week and a Qur'an for the first two months, Ms. Harkat said.

Initially, one guard referred to him as "terrorist" instead of using his name, she added.

Later, he was transferred to the Millhaven Institution, where security certificate detainees are "treated worse than animals."

"They are not considered human beings," she said.

The conference, which is expected to draw 3,000 people, continues today.

Help us fight for justice, Harkat's wife asks Muslims

[Al-khiyal]

July 20, 2007 -- Sophie Harkat e-mailed me the good news. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) had given permission for me to visit them for an interview. I dropped by on a sunny Sunday afternoon and was taken to a gazebo in the back yard of the house they share with her mother. They pointed to a camera overhead, recording what happens in the back yard.

When they heard one of Sophie's relatives driving up, Sophie went over to the driveway to call to him to come to the back of the house. Mohamed nervously cautioned her, reminding her of bail conditions. He was not to be left alone with anyone. She assured him that it was okay. The restriction, she said, applied only outside the home. He is allowed outside the home three times a week, for a total of four hours. They must get approval from the CBSA in advance for all destinations. He wears a tracking device at all times, though I suspect that he takes it off when he bathes.

Mohamed told me his story. He grew up outside a village in the Tahert region of Algeria, southwest of Algiers. After graduating from the local high school in a nearby community, he went on to university in Oran, where he studied electrical engineering. However, he had to leave after the first year because of his political activities.

He was registering people in his house for the new opposition Islamic Salvation Front. That was in 1989 and 1990. According to Mohamed, the Front was a populist party, opposing corruption and supporting job opportunities, road construction, low-cost housing, and other social programs. According to Wikipedia, the Front's 1989 program as described in a platform document was widely criticized as vague, and the party itself encompassed a wide spectrum of opinion, from moderate to extreme Islamist. With police rounding up members, he fled the country in 1990. The following year, the Front came out for adoption of sharia law, imposing dress restrictions on women, and for other conservative religious obligations. By that time, Mohamed was long gone.

As a unilingual Arabic-speaker, he fled first to Saudi Arabia, hoping to continue university there, but he was unable to obtain the necessary immigration status. Running out of money, he took a post with the Muslim World League, a Saudi charity reported to be controlled by Salafist (Wahabi) elements. They sent him to Pakistan to help Afghan refugees. He remained there till 1994, when again he had to flee. Algeria was asking Pakistan to return Front members.

At this point, it should be noted that one Canadian judge said that she believed he was lying when he said that he had never been in Afghanistan, but he does not know the basis for the claim and he has no way of contesting the secret evidence.

In fleeing Pakistan, "I could not use my Algerian passport," he said. If he had, it would have been a one-way ticket back to Algeria. So he bought a counterfeit Saudi passport and came to Canada, claiming refugee status. He was granted refugee status in 1997.

He settled in in Canada, working a variety of low-paying jobs, often more than one at a time, and studying, to learn English and improve his employability. While working at a convenience store, he met his future wife, Sophie Lamarche, who was a customer. All went well until December 10, 2002, when Mohamed was taken into custody, suspected of being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent. He was incarcerated without charge for 43 months, before being released under strict bail conditions. His release followed court appeals and a Supreme Court decision invalidating the law under which he was held, but the Court gave the government a year to revise the legislation. Civil liberties supporters attacked the notion of imprisonment without charge on the basis of secret evidence. And then there was Sophie. Mohamed chose well. This woman fought like a tiger for her man's freedom. "Freedom" may be a strong word. "Now I'm his jailer," she remarked. She has to be with him at all times, or if not her then her mother. When they go out on their brief outings, two CBSA agents follow them at all times.

"The CBSA guys seem nice enough," said Sophie, "but you can't trust them." They reported Mohamed for going through a yellow light and for making a u-turn, violations, it was said, of his obligation to be law-abiding.

Mohamed does not appear particularly devout. He married a Catholic, and she is still Catholic. She wears a cross. "He never used to pray when I first knew him," she said. He does his five prayers a day now, but there is not a great deal else that he can do. He is not allowed to use the computer and his visitors must be cleared ahead of time by the CBSA.

"Religion is personal," said Mohamed. In the context of our conversation, that gave religion a flexible character. Speaking of the other Muslim men who were held with him in the special holding unit, Sophie remarked that "They were all very strict." And she called him Moe. She once reported that her niece prayed for his release from prison-for "Uncle Moe." While Mohamed is a believer, he seems to take his religion with a certain easiness. He does not appear to be one who crosses all the "t's" and dots all the "i's". And if he is al-Qaeda, he certainly hides it very well.

The Mohamed Harkat story

[Al-khiyal]

OTTAWA, October 12, 2007 (AFP) — An accused terrorist sleeper agent who faces deportation to Algeria, where he says he would be tortured and killed, appealed to Canada on Friday to give him a "fair trial."

"The injustice continues. Today I am here (to ask) the Canadian government to give me a fair trial with access to the evidence so that I can defend myself fairly and openly," said Mohammed Harkat. "I don't want any more secrecy."

Harkat was arrested in December 2002 at his Ottawa apartment under a legal measure authorizing the expulsion or imprisonment of foreigners suspected of posing a threat to national security.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in February that the law was unconstitutional, but kept it alive for one year to allow the government time to amend the act.

Harkat's defenders asked Canada's high court in May to overturn a ministerial deportation order. That decision is pending.

The government, meanwhile, is appealing his release on bail.

Harkat was granted refugee status when he arrived in Canada in 1997.

He was later detained for 43 months, but was eventually released in June 2006 under strict bail conditions, which include electronic monitoring.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service suspects Harkat of having trained in a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and of belonging to an Al-Qaeda sleeper cell. Harkat has denied the allegations.

Algerian terror suspect urges Canada trial, fights deportation

[Al-khiyal]

OTTAWA, October 12, 2007 - The U.S. government will not allow the lawyer of accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat to interview Abu Zubayda, a top al-Qaida lieutenant being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Lawyer Paul Copeland made the request because Zubayda is the only known informant against his client and he wanted his evidence to form part of Harkat's new security certificate hearing. But U.S. officials have shut the door to that possibility.

"Any access to Abu Zubayda would pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States and could cause irreparable harm to the ongoing efforts in the war on terrorism," Sandra Hodgkinson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence, wrote in a letter dated September 26.

Harkat, 39, of Ottawa, contends the security certificate case against him should now be dropped - or brought to a criminal court - since he cannot confront his only known accuser.

"I want the Canadian government to give me a fair trial with access to the evidence so that I can defend myself fairly and openly. I don't want any more secrecy," he told reporters at a news conference Friday.

Harkat, an Algerian refugee who was arrested and jailed for more than three years on the strength of a security certificate, is accused by the federal government of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent who poses an extreme threat to Canadians.

Indeed, federal officials consider him such a threat that they are still trying to deport him to Algeria - even though the Supreme Court has said the process that labelled Harkat a terrorist was fundamentally unjust.

In February, the Supreme Court gave the government one year to enact changes to the security certificate process to bring it into conformity with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The high court said the secretive process denies accused persons the ability to fully defend themselves.

The Canadian government has indicated that it will consider the introduction of special advocates, or security-cleared lawyers, to protect the interests of accused persons.

Such an advocate would be allowed access to classified documents and hearings, and could assist a judge in the cross-examination of witnesses in-camera.

It's expected Harkat will be put through whatever new legal process is eventually approved by Parliament.

But some critics contend that process will still be unfair. "The problem with any special advocate process is that it still relies on secret evidence," said Jessica Squires, of the Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee.

The special advocate also cannot ensure that key informants, such as Zubayda, are allowed to testify.

Zubayda, who was once third on the U.S. list of most wanted al-Qaida suspects, has been a major figure in the Harkat case.

The government says it has evidence that Harkat formed a relationship with Zubayda in Pakistan in the early 1990s.

According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Zubayda identified Harkat "by description and activity" as operating a guest house in Peshawar for jihadis travelling to Chechnya.

Harkat, however, testified in his own defence and insisted that he had never met Zubayda and has never knowingly assisted a terrorist.

Harkat, who was released on strict bail conditions in June 2006, told reporters that he wants the chance to clear his name.

"I'm tired of feeling unhuman," said Harkat, who lives in Ottawa with his wife, Sophie, under what amounts to a modified form of house arrest. "I want the Canadian people to know the truth. I want the truth to come out and I want justice."

No access to suspected al-Qaida boss for Harkat's lawyer

[Al-khiyal]

Ottawa, October 13, 2007 -- An Algerian-born man accused of having terrorist links is demanding the Canadian government abolish his security certificate entirely - and that the secret evidence being used against him be revealed.

"I'm outraged by the fact that my case is based on secret evidence," Mohamed Harkat said at a press conference yesterday. "I'm also shocked that the Canadian government is attempting to deport me under the old law, after it was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in February 2007."

Harkat was arrested on the controversial certificate in December 2002 outside his Vanier home. He was released on strict bail conditions for house-arrest in June of last year

"I'm here today because I'm tired of feeling inhuman," he said yesterday. "I want the Canadian people to know the truth. I want the truth to come out and I want justice because I deserve to clear my name."

Time is ticking. The feds are pushing through with efforts to have Harkat deported to his native Algeria. That, despite assurances none of the five detainees held under the security certificate would be deported during the one-year period following the Supreme Court's decision.

"I fear for my life and I'm scared," Harkat said. "I fear deportation because I return to a brutal military regime."

He made a heart-tugging plea, saying his aging father in Algeria hasn't been able to sleep soundly for the last four years, worried for his son's future.

Harkat doesn't know if he'll ever get to see his father again. To see him, he said, would be like "paradise."

"I left when I was 23 or 24, now I'm 39," Harkat said. "Someday, he's going to die and I'm never going to see him again."

Jessica Squires, of the Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee, criticized the government for its "cosmetic changes" to the security certificate legislation.

"We are worried that minor changes would probably still result in a process that would violate the Charter, leading to further appeals and legal wrangling, while the detainees and their families continue to languish in a state of limbo," Squires said.

The committee also expressed concerns with a "special advocate," who would be appointed by a court or government to represent the interests of the detainee, and have access to the secret evidence. They question the impartiality of a special advocate and believe the case should be dealt with under the Criminal Code.

Harkat asks for deportation halt, evidence outing

[Al-khiyal]

Canada, October 20, 2007 -- Activists held rallies across the country on Saturday, calling for the release of Mohamed Harkat and four others detained under a contentious federal anti-terrorism measure.

Last February, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that security certificates, used to detain suspected terrorists and keep sensitive information from the public, violate the Charter of Rights.

The certificates allow government officials to use secret court hearings, indefinite prison terms and summary deportations when dealing with non-citizens accused of having terrorist ties.

The SCC suspended the full legal effect of the ruling for a year, giving the government time to rewrite the law.

Harkat, who came to Canada as a refugee from Algeria, was detained on a security certificate in 2002.

He remains under house arrest and must wear a tracking device. Officials denied his request to attend a rally in Ottawa on Saturday, but he gave supporters a message via audiotape.

"I feel like an animal on a leash. I don't feel like a human being," he said.

Canadian intelligence officials allege Harkat is an Islamic extremist with connections to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Harkat has never been formally charged with any crime, there has never been a trial, and he has yet to see the purported evidence against him. He maintains his innocence and has said that he could be tortured if sent back to Algeria.

The government promised in its throne speech last week to change the Anti-Terrorism Act, revising the security certificate system.

But activists said Saturday that such revisions would do little to change a "two-tiered" justice system that deprives immigrants of their legal rights.

"My concern is that the new legislation will not provide the immigrants and the non-status people with a fair trial," Monia Mazigh told a rally in downtown Ottawa. "We never expected something like this."

Mazigh is the wife of Maher Arar, the Syrian-born Canadian detained in New York and deported by the U.S. to Syria in 2002, where he was tortured for a year. Arar has been fully exonerated by a Canadian inquiry, which found that the RCMP gave incorrect information to U.S. authorities that Arar was an Islamic fundamentalist.

At a rally in Toronto just outside the CSIS building, organizer Matthew Behrens said Arar's case shows that "secret evidence" can have little or no credibility.

Melisa Leclerc, the communications director for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said the government will address any issues with the certificates, but defended the system.

"The only way a person could be subject to a security certificate would be a person that is not a Canadian citizen who represents a serious threat to Canada,'' she wrote to The Canadian Press in an email.

She also accused the Liberals of being "soft on terror." However, the security certificates, which fall under immigration legislation, were created in 1978 by a Liberal government.

Along with Toronto, rallies were expected to be held in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Fredericton and Halifax and the Ontario communities of Kitchener-Waterloo, London Durham, Orillia, Midland and Sudbury.

Protesters demand end to security certificates