by Mohammed Adam
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: February 3, 2010


Mohamed Harkat ended two days of testimony Tuesday, laying bare his past ruinous gambling addiction and continuing to deny he was a sleeper agent or that he had any contact with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, as the government contends.

He described to Federal Court Judge Simon Noël his expensive gambling habit that cost him up to $100,000 and acknowledged the corrosive addiction put him in debt and nearly ruined his marriage.

Harkat said he lost thousands playing mainly blackjack at the Lac Leamy Casino in Gatineau. He gambled every cent he had, even his savings. Eventually, he said he had to ask to be banned from the casino after his wife Sophie told him choose gambling or her. "I tell the security (at the casino) I like to ban myself. I did for a year," he said. "It was out of control. I lost all the business money I had."

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