A federal court justice has upheld a national security certificate against an Ottawa gas station attendant, bringing Mohamed Harkat one step closer to being deported to Algeria. The 36-year-old has been held since Dec. 10, 2002, on allegations that he is a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda. Canada's spy service claims Harkat, while supposedly working at a Muslim charity in Pakistan in the early 1990s, operated a guesthouse for jihadis travelling to Chechnya. He is also accused of travelling to Afghanistan and associating with Abu Zubaydah, who was third on the U.S. list of most-wanted Al Qaeda suspects, behind leader Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri.

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