Source: The Canadian Press
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Date: October 9, 2008


OTTAWA — Lawyers for accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat say they've worked out an agreement in principle with federal authorities to ease Harkat's bail conditions.

Under the new arrangement, Harkat will finally be able to move out of the basement apartment in his mother-in-law's house where he's been staying, lawyer Norm Boxall said Wednesday.

Justice Simon Noel of Federal Court is expected to issue a formal order to that effect by the end of the week.

Boxall cautioned, however, that the new rules will be temporary in nature and could be revisited at a court hearing next month.

Harkat, a former Ottawa pizza delivery man, is accused by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service of being an al-Qaida agent who must be removed from Canada as a security risk. He denies any link to terrorist activities.

He was arrested in December 2002 and has been fighting deportation ever since.He was released from custody in 2006, but only under restrictions described by his lawyers as the toughest bail conditions in Canadian history.

Harkat must wear a GPS ankle bracelet, be supervised 24 hours a day, have surveillance cameras on his residence, have his mail intercepted and his phone tapped. He is limited to three surpervised outings a week.

Last May, he failed in a bid to have some of the conditions amended.

He sought permission to move to a new residence at that time, largely because of a breakdown in relations between his mother-in-law and her former partner, both of whom had agreed to act as "sureties" or supervisors in keeping with his bail conditions.

He was denied permission to move last spring by Federal Court Justice Eleanor Dawson because the condominium where Harkat and his wife Sophie had hoped to live refused to allow installation of surveillance cameras or let surveillance teams park nearby.

Sophie Harkat says the couple's living situation has become "unbearable for everyone and a constant source of stress and anxiety for all of us."

She said Wednesday they have been living a nightmare.

"I have been a full-time jailer for my husband for 2 1/2 years and all of our rights have been violated since his release."

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