By Janice Tibbetts
Source: Canwest News Service
URL: [link]
Date: December 14, 2009

[PHOTO: Hassan Almrei was arrested in 2001 after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service alleged he was part of a Sunni extremist network.]


OTTAWA — The Federal Court has dealt another blow to the federal government's effort to deport foreign terrorist suspects in a ruling that quashed a security certificate against Hassan Almrei.

"I am satisfied that Hassan Almrei has not engaged in terrorism and is not and was not a member of an organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe has, does, or will engage in terrorism," Justice Richard Mosley wrote in a ruling released Monday.

Security certificates, which empower the government to detain non-Canadian suspects without charge or without knowing the case against them are one of the key federal tools in fighting terrorism.

On the approval of two cabinet ministers, the government can issue the certificates, which permit the incarceration of a suspect in "administrative detention" until a Federal Court judge determines whether he or she should be returned to his or her home country.

Almrei, a Syrian, came to Canada in 1999 as a refugee claimant. He was arrested in Toronto in 2001 after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service alleged he was part of a Sunni extremist network.

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