[PHOTO: Adil Chakaoui smiles as he arrives at federal court in Montreal. Justice Danièle Tremblay-Lamer told the court shortly afterwards that she would issue an order to remove all the conditions limiting his freedom. (Sept. 24, 2009) ] MONTREAL – Once branded a terrorist operative, jailed, and headed for deportation, Moroccan-born Montreal resident Adil Charkaoui will soon be a free man. During a hearing in Federal Court, this morning, Justice Danièle Tremblay-Lamer told the court she will issue an order later today to remove all the conditions limiting his freedom. Upon hearing the news Charkaoui's parents seated in the audience broke down in tears. Charkaoui looked at them and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Charkaoui, 36, was arrested and detained in 2003 under Canada's embattled "security certificate" system, a provision of immigration law where non-citizens deemed a threat to national security can be deported while the evidence against them is kept hidden. The judge has yet to pronounce on the cancellation of the certificate itself and certain questions the Crown wants heard in the Federal Court of Appeal, and yet this latest step toward exoneration of Charkaoui's six-year ordeal came quite quickly. In late July, to circumvent a judge's order to disclose certain intelligence, government lawyers decided to withdraw the evidence, claiming that its disclosure would undermine national security. The intelligence apparently came from communications intercepts and human sources that the government doesn't want exposed. As a result, Crown lawyers submitted to the judge that the evidence that remains doesn't "meet their burden of proof" to support the certificate's use to deport Charkaoui. Still, Tremblay-Lamer made it clear during the morning hearing that in light of the withdrawal, she has no choice but to quash the certificate. "It's evident the certificate will be cancelled," she said.

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