Federal Court of Appeal to hear Charkaoui on CSIS destroying evidence

Posted by admin on Jan 12th, 2006

Federal Court of Appeal to hear Charkaoui on CSIS destroying evidence

On Thursday 12 January 2006, the Federal Court of Appeal will hear Charkaoui’s lawyer Me. Dominique Larochelle challenge the fact that CSIS destroyed recordings and notes of interviews with Charkaoui that took place before his arrest in May 2003. CSIS provided only a very selective summary of these interviews for its public report, removing elements which supported Charkaoui’s defense. The classified summary provided to the judge and government officials may have been similarly biased against Mr. Charkaoui. Neither Charkaoui nor Me. Larochelle are permitted to see the classified information, so they have no way of verifying. Charkaoui will also question whether information which CSIS introduced after the security certificate was signed (by then Immigration Minister Denis Coderre and Solicitor General Wayne Easter) should be included in the evaluation of the security certificate.


A first challenge to the destroyed evidence was heard and summarily rejected by Federal Court Judge Noel in early 2005. The Federal Court of Appeal accepted to hear the appeal. The three Court of Appeal Judges will be coming from Ottawa for the hearing because one of the 16 severe conditions of release imposed on Charkaoui in February 2005 prevents him from leaving the island of Montreal. Charkaoui is also forced to wear a GPS tracking bracelet, to respect a curfew, and he must be accompanied by one of his parents each time he leaves his home. Charkaoui has had these conditions imposed even though he has had no trial at all, not even the very limited judicial review provided for in security certificate cases. His security certificate review has been suspended since February 2005, pending a new decision from Immigration Canada on protection.

Charkaoui still faces deportation to torture, like four other men who remain in prison under security certificates, without charge on the basis of secret evidence. Mahjoub, Jaballah and Almrei have been detained in Toronto since June 2000, August 2001 and October 2001 respectively. Harkat has been detained in Ottawa since December 2002. The Coalition Justice forAdil Charkaoui, the Justice Committee for Mohamed Harkat and the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada continue to demand that these men be immediately liberated, that they be given a fair and just trial if there is any case against them, and that they not be deported to torture. The groups are also calling for the abolition of the security certificate, along with hundreds of organizations and individuals in Canada and Quebec.

Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui
www.adilinfo.org
justiceforadil at riseup.net
tel 514 859 9023

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