Original author: CBC News Staff
Source: CBC News
URL: [link]
Date: Feb 17, 2005

OTTAWA - A Federal Court judge has granted bail to suspected terrorist Adil Charkaoui, who has spent the past 21 months in jail under a ministerial security certificate.

In a decision Thursday, Judge Simon Noel ruled that Charkaoui, 31, can be released on $50,000 bail, subject to a number of conditions.

Charkaoui must respect a curfew, stay with his family and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. Limits were also placed on who he can contact and on his use of computers.

Several Quebecers, including filmmaker Denys Arcand, have agreed to post the bail money.

It was the fourth bail application by the Moroccan-born Charkaoui, who has been accused of being a sleeper agent for al-Qaeda.

Under a security certificate, the government can detain and deport people without releasing all the evidence against them.

It's not immediately clear whether the federal government can appeal the decision.

At a court hearing in January, Charkaoui's lawyers argued the case against him should be dropped because the Canadian Security Intelligence Service destroyed key notes from interviews with him.

In 2002, intelligence agents held two interviews with Charkaoui, a permanent Canadian resident who has lived in Montreal since 1995.The report they wrote based on those interviews is part of the evidence against him.

A government lawyer told the court the notes had been destroyed, something CSIS agents normally do after writing a final report.

Defence lawyer Dominique Larochelle said she wanted to see the notes or hear a recording of those meetings because she felt they might cast her client in a favourable light.

Noel said at the time that he was troubled by the destruction of the documents.