Original author: Canadian Press
Source: The Ottawa Sun
URL: [link]
Date: March 27, 2005


MONTREAL -- Four days after a judge set the stage for Mohamed Harkat's deportation, his wife lashed out at the federal government for holding the Ottawa terror suspect without charges. "I have enormous rage against the Canadian government," said Sophie Harkat, who travelled to Montreal yesterday to join several dozen others in protesting national security certificates used to detain five alleged terrorists without trial or charges.

"I'm a Canadian citizen and I don't have the right to know how my husband came to be detained for 27 months without knowing the charges or the evidence ... it's unacceptable."

Last Tuesday, a Federal Court judge upheld the certificate issued against Harkat, who's been detained since December 2002 on suspicion of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent. Harkat faces deportation to his native Algeria.

Suspected Moroccan terrorist Adil Charkaoui, another man detained under a security certificate, also blasted the feds at the rally."They arrested me, they didn't show any proof and they told me I was very dangerous," said Charkaoui, who was detained nearly two years before being released under bail conditions in February.

"I want the government to give me a fair trial, to clear my name and show I'm not a terrorist."

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