Ottawa's Mohamed Harkat, imprisoned for more than two years as a terrorist suspect, suffers major depression and is afflicted by visions of his own torture, according to a psychiatric assessment filed with the Federal Court of Canada. The psychiatric report forms part of Mr. Harkat's bail application, which begins today when the accused al-Qaeda operative takes the witness stand. "I believe that Mr. Harkat's mental health is liable to worsen the longer he stays incarcerated," psychiatrist Dr. Colin Cameron concludes. "In particular, his vivid nightmares of facing torture in Algeria have started only since his incarceration." In those night terrors, he said, Mr. Harkat "even experiences body sensations as if his fingernails are being pulled out or his skin is being scraped off."Dr. Cameron, medical director of the trauma disorders program at the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre, conducted a three-hour interview with Mr. Harkat in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre.

He said Mr. Harkat should be treated with anti-depressant drugs regardless of the outcome of his bail hearing.

"If anything, he may have a tendency to under-report the severity of his symptoms and difficulties. The severity of Mr. Harkat's depression is a cause of concern for me and I believe that it should be treated."

Mr. Harkat has been under a deportation order to his native Algeria since March when Judge Eleanor Dawson upheld the government's opinion that he is an al-Qaeda terrorist. She based her decision largely on evidence not made available to Mr. Harkat's lawyers or the public.

Mr. Harkat wants to be released from jail pending the outcome of a constitutional appeal that now appears headed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Similar appeals in two other security certificate cases have already been accepted by the high court.

More than 60 prominent Canadians have filed affidavits with the Federal Court offering cash bonds in support of Mr. Harkat's bail application, including filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau, former NDP leaders Ed Broadbent and Alexa McDonough, Amnesty International Canada Secretary General Alex Neve, Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Deborah Bourque and writer Naomi Klein.

Mr. Harkat's lawyer, Matthew Webber, said he believes that support reflects a groundswell of opposition to the security certificate process.

"I would like to think there has been a shift in the tide of these cases," he said.

In next week's bail application, Mr. Webber intends to propose that Mr. Harkat be released under a series of strict conditions. Two of six men now facing security certificates have been released on bail.

Mr. Harkat has been held without criminal charge since Dec. 10, 2002 when he was arrested on the strength of a security certificate signed by two federal cabinet ministers. The ministers were convinced Mr. Harkat was a terrorist threat based on information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Dr. Cameron said Mr. Harkat, who has lost 20 pounds while in custody, described his emotional state as "down, sad, lost and powerless." He writes and plays cards to distract himself; he studies the Koran daily and prays.

In his interview with the psychiatrist, Mr. Harkat said it's unacceptable for anyone to use violence to promote Islam. He denounced the terrorist events of Sept. 11, 2001.

"It is sad," Mr. Harkat told Dr. Cameron. "Taking somebody else's life is not supposed to be in human hands. It's supposed to be in God's hands."

Mr. Harkat's worst fear, the psychiatrist said, is of being deported to Algeria where he believes he will be tortured or killed. That fear contributes to his insomnia and fuels the nightmares that interrupt his sleep.

According to Dr. Cameron, Mr. Harkat regrets being dependent on some people when he came to Ottawa "as he feels these relationships may have gotten him into trouble with CSIS."

Mr. Harkat did not identify anyone in the interview, but presumably he was referring to his former roommate, a mysterious Egyptian-Canadian named Mohamed El Barseigy, who introduced him in the mid-1990s to Ahmed Said Khadr, then the highest ranking Canadian member of al-Qaeda.

Mr. Harkat told Dr. Cameron he wants to regain his former life in Ottawa, where he worked as a gas station attendant and pizza delivery man.

"I wish to be with my wife, get back on my feet, and return to work and have a family."

Mr. Webber said the psychiatric assessment reveals the hardship faced by Mr. Harkat during 34 months in custody.

"I think detention has been much harder on Mr. Harkat than he would relate," said Mr. Webber. "He's a fellow who just swallows hard and forges ahead."

In his assessment, Dr. Cameron also reported that Mr. Harkat has above average intelligence and shows no sign of psychopathy.

Mr. Harkat, however, did acknowledge having a gambling problem. That problem originated in 1996 when he visited the Hull Casino and was taken with the excitement of winning money. He played blackjack, and occasionally, the slot machines. Soon, he was at the casino as many as seven days a week.

Mr. Harkat's gambling addiction became so serious that he was sometimes spending his entire paycheque at the casino. He borrowed money and used his credit cards to gamble. He once won 32,000 dollars in a single day's gambling only to lose it all the next day.

In 1999, Mr. Harkat had himself banned from the Hull Casino, but he relapsed a year later. He had himself banned a second time for five years.

"I wanted to save my marriage," he told Dr. Cameron.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2005