TORONTO -- A Toronto man ordered deported for alleged ties to terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden appeared in court yesterday under heavy security to request bail.

Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub, 43, has been held in a Toronto jail since his arrest in June 2000. His lawyer, Rocco Galati, asked that he be released under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act pending a review of a deportation order upheld by a Federal Court ruling. Galati said Mahjoub faces certain death if sent back to his native Egypt, where he is listed as No. 20 of the top 29 fugitives.

Galati called the enhanced security at the University Ave. provincial courts, which included RCMP, CSIS and Immigration task force officers as well as dozens of Toronto Police and court officers, "abusive."

"There's no need for all this crap. I've seen less security in dictatorships," he said, noting Mahjoub has not been charged criminally.

"We do other cases that are much more dangerous -- biker trials, organized crime trials -- where people get a fair hearing.

"It's police state propaganda. They are making their case by putting all these uniforms out here."

Mahjoub, who has a Canadian wife and three children, was arrested based on a security intelligence report that he was a member of an organization bent on subversion and terrorism and, therefore, a security threat to Canada.

It is alleged >Mahjoub was a high-ranking member of al-Jihad and worked for bin Laden in the 1990s.

A decision on bail was reserved for at least two weeks.

Galati said if bail is not granted he will launch a constitutional challenge to the deportation order.

"It will be years before the government will be in a legal position to remove him," he said.