By Jon Willing
Source: The Ottawa Sun
URL: [link]
Date: January 31, 2008

Mohamed Harkat was convinced he would never see the inside of a jail cell again.

"It's hell," Harkat said last night in a phone interview from the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, where he has been kept in segregation since his arrest Tuesday.

It was that afternoon that federal officers and Ottawa police showed up at his Herongate home, got him out of the shower and drove him to jail in handcuffs.

He's an alleged al-Qaida sleeper agent with no formal charges against him. He's been on an unprecedented set of strict bail conditions for nearly two years.

Today, he'll fight to take back the small piece of freedom he has enjoyed.A federal court judge will hear arguments on whether Harkat breached his bail order, whether the bail conditions should be amended and whether he should be kept in jail.

According to Harkat's lawyers, the feds believe his mother-in-law, Pierrette Brunette, has not been living at the house, as required.

Canada Border Services officials also suspect a portion of the house was locked off and that one of Harkat's sureties, Brunette's common-law partner Alois Weidemann, didn't have access to the entire house, according to Harkat's lawyers.

The allegations have disheartened Harkat, who says he takes every precaution possible to make sure he doesn't break his release conditions.

"I followed it, step by step, like a book, A to Z," he said.

Even last night, Harkat couldn't piece together the feds' reasoning for plucking him out of his home, putting him back into a "nightmare."

The prison sounds -- the cell doors closing, the white noise trapped within the prison walls -- are all too familiar to Harkat.

While he looks forward to having his lawyers make his case in court today, Harkat conceded the battle is wearing him down.

"I never ever go to bed without thinking about it," he said.

Harkat, an Algerian native, estimates that 80% of the people inside jail know who he is.

Some jail guards were surprised to see him back.

Inside the jail yesterday, Harkat's wife was a little more upbeat as she left the visiting room.

Sophie Harkat said she's been busy doing media interviews since Tuesday.

"I haven't been sleeping," she said before heading to the Hill for an event in support of her husband.

Mohamed Harkat couldn't predict what will happen after today's hearing. He just wants to reclaim the piece of his life that he only recently got back.

"It's my life and my family's life on the line," he said.

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