Original author: Harsha Walia
Source: Georgia Strait (British Columbia)
URL: [link]
Date: September 8, 2005


Hassan Almrei is a 31-year-old Syrian national who has been held in a provincial prison in Ontario for almost four years despite never having been convicted of a crime in Canada. During the Labour Day weekend, he ended a hunger strike after 73 days, a protest during which he demanded the same rights as a federal inmate.

His main demand is to be allowed the right to one hour a day of exercise outside his cell, a right enjoyed by all federal inmates. But both the federal and provincial governments consider Hassan a provincial inmate, so he is only allowed 20 minutes of exercise a day.

Provincial prisons are generally meant to detain prisoners for short periods. So why has Hassan served four years in solitary confinement in one of them? Because to serve time in a federal penitentiary, a person must be convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than two years, and Hassan has not yet been convicted of any crime.

Hassan is one of five men-collectively known as the "Secret Trial Five"-whose lives have been torn apart by accusations that they are not allowed to fight in a fair and independent trial.

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