Harkat proposes tough bail conditions

posted on November 05, 2005 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLink

Original author: Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] (subscribers only) Date: November 05, 2005 Electronic tracking device never before used in Canada

A lawyer for accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat says he has tabled the most comprehensive bail package in Canadian history -- one that includes a satellite tracking system -- but federal lawyers insist the Ottawa man is still too dangerous to release. Canadian Security Intelligence Service lawyer James Mathieson said he was amazed at the "breadth and scope" of the bail conditions proposed in the case. "When you look at these conditions, at how restrictive they are, it would be very difficult for a person of good will and sincerity to abide by them," he said, adding: "Mr. Harkat has not established he is a person of good will and sincerity." Mr. Mathieson told Judge Francois Lemieux that Mr. Harkat has already lied in Federal Court and would say or do anything to get out of jail. "But he does not mean what he says," Mr. Mathieson charged, "and would drag good, well-meaning people down the garden path to destruction and the loss of significant assets." Mr. Mathieson was referring to the more than 60 people who have offered a total of $135,000 in cash bonds and sureties in support of Mr. Harkat's bail application. To win bail, Mr. Harkat, an Algerian refugee, must establish that he will not be deported from Canada in a reasonable period of time and does not pose a threat to Canadian society.His lawyer, Matthew Webber, said Mr. Harkat has proposed bail conditions that are considerably more strict than those of Adil Charkaoui, of Montreal, another security certificate detainee who was released on bail earlier this year.

Mr. Harkat has agreed to wear an electronic tracking system that includes a feature that would allow authorities to track him outside his home with a global positioning system. Such a system, court heard, has never been used in Canada, but is regularly employed in the United States.

Mr. Harkat has also agreed to virtual house arrest; to leave his house only under the supervision of a surety; to not speak Arabic on the phone; to allow a phone tap in his house; and to refrain from using a cellphone or other electronic communication devices.

"This is the kitchen sink; this is everything we can put on the table," said Mr. Webber, who told Judge Lemieux that he has won bail for clients accused of first-degree murder with less stringent bail packages.

Mr. Harkat is accused by the government of being an al-Qaeda operative who ran a guest house for jihadists in Pakistan and associated with al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah.

He was arrested on the strength of a government-issued security certificate in December 2002. Earlier this year, Federal Court Judge Eleanor Dawson upheld that security certificate as reasonable, and in the process, imposed a deportation order against Mr. Harkat.

That deportation order is on hold, pending a government review that must weight the danger that he poses to Canada against the possibility that he will be tortured if returned to Algeria. Mr. Harkat wants to be released on bail while that procedure moves forward and while a Supreme Court challenge to the constitutionality of the security certificate process is heard.

Mr. Webber yesterday suggested the evidence that CSIS has gathered against Mr. Harkat -- most of it remains secret -- has been seriously diminished by the testimony this week of a senior CSIS intelligence analyst.

The analyst, identified only as P.G., told court he has never taken steps to understand if information received by the agency has been obtained through the use of torture. The analyst, who regularly produces top secret reports for senior government officials about al-Qaeda and the threat it poses to Canadians, said he has never raised questions about the treatment of intelligence sources overseas, nor have his superiors.

Mr. Webber yesterday suggested that form of wilful blindness has opened the possibility that CSIS is regularly treating "inherently unreliable information as reliable."

Judge Lemieux yesterday expressed his own "surprise" about P.G.'s admission that he was unfamiliar with the infamous White House memo that offered legal underpinnings for the use of torture in the war on terror. "I was aware of the existence of that document through the newspaper," he said. "It's not a secret."

Mr. Webber's co-counsel, Paul Copeland, criticized CSIS' counsel for failing to make the intelligence service address its use of information obtained under torture, a practice, he said, that offends both international law and human decency.

The bail hearing is expected to conclude next week.

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