Original author: CBC News Staff
Source: CBC News
URL: [link]
Date: October 24, 2005


Lawyers for Mohammed Harkat were in court Monday morning on the first day of a bail hearing for the Algerian refugee claimant who has been detained under a security certificate for nearly three years.

Harkat has spent the past 34 months at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre since he was arrested and accused by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service of being a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda - an allegation that his family denies.

The conditions Harkats lawyers are asking for - which includes curfews, electronic monitoring, a ban on using computers and maybe even speaking his native Arabic - would make it difficult for Harkat to pose a danger to anyone.

"We're proposing a bail that is really as strict a bail as one could imagine," said lawyer Matt Webber.

Harkat's supporters offered large sureties for his release. Mother-in-law Pierrette Brunet put up her savings of 50,000 dollars and his wife, Sophie Harkat, says the family is ready to meet any conditions set by the court."Whatever's necessary, we'll do," she said. "We just want him out. I don't think Mo could handle another year in jail and I don't think that I could myself."

Harkat's other lawyer, Paul Copeland, took exception to questions from the Crown about how much of Harkat's defence fund had been donated by Muslims.

"To smear the Muslim community that way by suggesting that their money isn't the same as anyone else's money is, to me, an offensive question," Copeland said outside the courtoom.

In March, Harkat lost his fight against the use of the security certificate used to pick up and detain him.

One of the problems Harkat has faced all along is that, because the case deals with issues of national security, he and his lawyer haven't been able to see a lot of the evidence Canada's intelligence service has brought against him.

As well, in September, Federal Court upheld his deportation order to Algeria.

In the meantime, Harkat's lawyers are still hoping the Supreme Court will overturn the use of security certificates on constitutional grounds. On Monday morning they finished filing an application to take their case to the highest court, which is already looking at the cases of Adil Charkaoui and Hassan Almrei.

Harkat's bail hearing is scheduled to last until Wednesday.

Copyright © CBC 2005