Original author: CBC News Staff
Source: CBC News
URL: [link]
Date: October 26, 2005

As Mohamed Harkat's bail hearing continues Wednesday, his legal team says it's seen a memo that suggests the government is ready to move ahead with deportation, because it's been given assurances from Algeria that Harkat will not face torture there.

Lawyer Matt Webber says they'll fight the deportation order, which was upheld by the Federal Court in September. He says they have the right to respond, and that it "will take several months to prepare our response."

Harkat is an Algerian refugee arrested in December 2002 after CSIS accused him of being an al-Qaeda "sleeper." The security agency alleges that Harkat is an Islamic extremist who trained under Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Afghanistan.

Harkat has been held in jail on a security certificate for nearly three years. Security certificates allow the government to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely without charge.In March, Harkat lost his fight against the use of the security certificate.

At his bail hearing Tuesday, a psychiatrist testified that Harkat now suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of being held without charge and not being allowed to see the evidence against him.

Because the case deals with issues related to national security, Harkat and his lawyers haven't been able to see a lot of the evidence Canada's intelligence service has brought against him.

And while they work for bail and against deportation, Harkat's lawyers are hoping the Supreme Court will overturn the use of security certificates on constitutional grounds. On Monday they filed 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 wrap up on Wednesday.

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