Original author: Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen online URL: [link] Date: October 22, 2004 Federal Court hearing into the Harkat case begins Monday Lawyer says rulings make it difficult to prepare Harkat's defence

Accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat will testify for the first time in his own defence next week, but his lawyer says so many details of the allegations against him remain secret that it's impossible to prepare him for court. Mr. Harkat, 35, is an Algerian refugee who worked as a gas station attendant and pizza delivery man before being arrested under a security certificate on Dec. 10, 2002. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) alleges that Mr. Harkat is a member of al-Qaeda and has repeatedly lied to them about his terrorist links. Mr. Harkat denies any involvement with terrorists and intends to take the witness stand in Federal Court next week to proclaim his innocence. "It's to give his evidence in response to what little we know about the case," Mr. Harkat's lawyer, Paul Copeland, said in an interview yesterday.

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Original author: Campbell Clark Source: The Globe and Mail online URL: [link] Date: October 13, 2004 Ottawa reverses signoff procedure for deportation of immigrants

OTTAWA -- The federal government has undone a much-criticized change to the way it issues the secretive 'security certificates' that are used to detain and deport immigrants on national security grounds. Two ministers, the public security minister and the immigration minister, will again be required to sign before such a certificate can be issued.

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Source: Human Rights Watch Website URL: [link] Date: October 6, 2004 "Diplomatic Assurances" will not Protect Deportees

(London, October 6, 2004) The British government has said it is seeking "diplomatic assurances" that terrorism suspects deported to their home countries will not be tortured there. It argues that, on receipt of such assurances, the men-many of whom have been held without trial for more than two years-could safely be deported. But experience shows that these assurances are an ineffective safeguard against torture, Human Rights Watch said today. ....The British position is moral abdication-there is a real risk that the men will be tortured if they are returned, whatever promises their home governments may offer. Holly Cartner Executive Director Europe and Central Asia Division Read more...

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In the report summarised below, there is further substantiation of the claim that Abu Zubayda is being tortured under US custody. Abu Zubayda is one of the people that CSIS apparently claims recognised [both Mohamed Harkat's picture and] Adil Charkaoui's picture. After earlier evidence that Zubayda was being tortured was presented in court by Charkaoui's lawyer and the witness Abdulrahman Khadr, the judge who is hearing Charkaoui's case decided to temporarily suspend all consideration of Zubayda's testimony. Perhaps this new report will convince him to make that a permanent decision. Unfortunately, Charkaoui is not able to cross-examine Abu Zoubaydah about any testimony he may have given against him.

More generally, the torture of these detainees, and open coverage of this torture by a mainstream group like Human Rights Watch, shows just how far the US has come in terms of the normalisation of torture, and the use of the "terrorist" label to justify new areas of violence and abuse by the state.

The report can be accessed at [link]

Read on...

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NOTE: The facility in question is the same one that Mohamed Harkat has been held in since December 2002. Original author: Lee Greenberg and Jake Rupert Source: The Ottawa Citizen online URL: [link] (subscribers only) Date: October 06, 2004 Lawyer wants inmate freed unless conditions are improved promptly

A lawyer for an Ottawa man facing two murder trials has accused the provincial government of running the Innes Road jail like an "Iraqi prison camp" in an application that requests the accused be released if conditions don't improve. The application, filed late last month, states that during Wahab Dadshani's two months in segregation at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre, he has been subject to "physical and psychological cruelty." Mr. Dadshani has been deprived of regular showers, physical activity and meetings with his lawyer, the document states. His health has deteriorated. "The applicant has been housed in cells that are not fit for human habitation due to infestations of insects and other periodic problems," according to the document. Mr. Dadshani's lawyer, Susan Mulligan, calls living conditions at the Innes Road facility subhuman.

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The interview focuses on the CBC's attempt to do an in-prison television interview with Mohamed. The CBC has since been granted permission to enter the prison and do the interview. This as a result of letters of protest to Correctional Services spokesperson Bruce O'Neill written by Mohamed's supporters. HERE is the Socialist Worker story by Ayesha Adhami, September 22, 2004.

Original author: Colin Freeze Source: The Globe and Mail online URL: [link] Date: September 16, 2004 Harkat requests 'friend of court' to dispute secret evidence against him

A terrorism suspect is asking that he be allowed a court-appointed representative who can get behind closed doors and dispute the secret evidence being levied against him. Mohamed Harkat, an Algerian refugee claimant, is asking for an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, so that he can stave off attempts to deport him. He is one of five immigrants currently being detained as a potential al-Qaeda sleeper agent. Ottawa is moving to deport them, and Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, by using a rarely used and highly controversial process.

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Original author: Mitchell Goldberg, freelancer Source: The Montreal Gazette URL: [link] (subscription required) Date: August 10, 2004 Ottawa broke promise on appeals. Churches step in to correct injustice because refugee system is arbitrary

Judy Sgro, minister of Citizenship and Immigration, was right about one thing in her recent call to churches to stop offering sanctuary: Refugees shouldn't be in sanctuary. She was wrong, however, in her diagnosis of the problem, which lies not with the churches that offer sanctuary, but with the flawed refugee-determination system that fails to protect some refugees. When refugees' lives are at risk because the government is not protecting them, some people of conscience feel a moral obligation to fill the gap by providing sanctuary.

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Original author: Lisa Lisle Source: The Ottawa Sun URL: n/a Date: August 7, 2004 Harkat review urged Judge wants new meetings with Feds

A Federal Court judge wants the government to take another look at its top-secret evidence against Mohamed Harkat to determine if it should still be kept under wraps. Justice Eleanor Dawson asked last month to meet with government lawyers "for the purpose of determining if as a result of the effluxion of time any further summary of the information or evidence may be provided to Mr. Harkat." "Some time has passed since the court examined the information on which the security certificate was based in order to consider whether disclosure of all or part of that information would be injurious to national security or to the safety of any person," she wrote in her order. A closed hearing was scheduled for yesterday to also consider a request from Harkat's lawyer, Paul Copeland, for additional disclosure, but it was cancelled, giving the government time to consider allowing another lawyer into the hearings.

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More news:
Lisa Lisle has been following Mohamed's story from Day One. Read her interview with Mohamed Harkat, originally published in the Ottawa Sun and reprint... HERE