by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: December 9, 2010


OTTAWA - Mohamed Harkat planned to hold a press conference Friday morning to respond to a Federal Court decision that brands him a member of the Osama bin Laden terrorist network and a threat to national security.

In a 186-page judgment released Thursday, Judge Simon Noël endorsed the government's view of Harkat as an active and dangerous member of the extremist network allied with al-Qaeda.

Harkat, 42, now faces the prospect of being deported to his native Algeria where, he contends, he will be tortured or killed.

Defence lawyer Matt Webber vowed to fight any attempt to send Harkat back to the country from which he fled in 1990.

"He was completely devastated," Webber said of Harkat's reaction to Thursday's Federal Court judgment.

That judgment, Webber charged, relies heavily on evidence heard in secret and unavailable to Harkat's defence team. "So we come out of this," he said, "still feeling as if we were deprived of the ability to meaningfully respond to the allegations."

Harkat, a former pizza delivery man and gas station attendant, has lived in Ottawa since September 1995.

A federal immigration officer must now assess whether Harkat faces a significant risk of torture if deported to Algeria, and whether that is outweighed by the danger he poses to Canada.

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