Original author: CBC News Staff
Source: CBC News
URL: [link]
Date: October 20, 2005


The Supreme Court of Canada will hear the appeal of a Syrian man who has been in a Toronto jail for four years on suspicion of terrorist links.

Hassan Almrei, who faces deportation to his homeland, is challenging the constitutionality of the federal security certificate, under which a detainee can be held indefinitely without a trial.

Almrei has been held in jail since 2001.

Almrei and his lawyers have not been allowed to see much of the evidence used by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to have him arrested, nor has he been charged nor given a trial. The certificate allows the government to keep the evidence a secret against the defendant.

CSIS alleges Almrei is connected to al-Qaeda Leader Osama Bin Laden and is a threat to Canadian security.Almrei, who denies the allegations, has admitted to working for a Saudi honey company accused of funnelling money to the terrorist network. He also admits he entered Canada on a false passport and knows an alleged al-Qaeda operative now being held in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The certificate used to arrest Almrei was supposed to be a device that could have him quickly deported back to Syria. But Almrei's lawyers successfully argued before a judge that Syrian police use torture as an interrogation technique. As a matter of policy, Canada doesn't deport people to countries where they might be tortured.

These circumstances have left Almrei, who came to Canada in 1999, in legal limbo.

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