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.

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