Adil Charkaoui

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Adil Charkaoui (born 1974) is a Morocco-born permanent resident of Canada who was arrested by the Canadian government under a security certificate in May 2003.

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[edit] Personal history

Charkaoui, born in 1973, has been living in Montreal, Quebec since 1995, when he moved to Canada with his mother, father and sister. He graduated with an MA from Université de Montréal and is a French teacher. He is married and has three children.

[edit] Detainment

Charkaoui was arrested under an Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) "security certificate" in May 2003 and detained without charge or trial in Rivière des prairies Detention Centre. He was released from prison on $50,000 dollars bail on 18 February 2005. His bail conditions include a curfew, electronic monitoring, designated chaperones for leaving his home, restriction to the island of Montreal, 24-hour police access to his home without warrant, and a prohibition on access to the internet, on the use of cell phones and on the use of any telephone except the one in his home.

[edit] Court challenges

Charkaoui has consistently denied the allegations against him and has challenged the legitimacy of the security certificate regime. Canadian authorities and the Federal Court have refused to disclose the case against Charkaoui, relying on provisions in the security certificate process that allow evidence to be kept from the defence and the public.

Charkaoui’s certificate has not undergone a court review and thus has not been upheld. The case has been suspended since March 2005, pending a new decision on protection by the Minister of Immigration.

Charkaoui has been at the centre of a public campaign against the extension of state power in the name of the "war on terror". In February 2006, Amnesty International reminded Canada, “His fundamental right to liberty and security of the person accords him the right to due process or release from the restrictive bail conditions that have been imposed on him.”

In February of 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision of Charkaoui v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) on the appeals Charkaoui, Almrei, and Harkat. The Court ruled that the certificate process violated sections 7, 9 and 10 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and struck down the security certificate legislation (sections 33 and 77 to 85 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act). However, the judgment will not take effect for one year.

In March 2007, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a second challenge by Charkaoui, this time relating to the destruction of evidence in Charkaoui’s case. Government lawyers revealed in January 2005 that CSIS had destroyed evidence in Charkaoui's file. The situation raised concerns about the accuracy of the secret evidence before the court. The Supreme Court will hear the challenge in January 2008.

In April 2007, Charkaoui submitted a leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in a third challenge; in this instance to the law permitting deportation of non-citizens when there is a risk of torture. The Canadian government’s position is that legal safeguards against being sent to torture do not apply to people who are subject to a security certificate, basing this policy on their interpretation of the 2002 Supreme Court Suresh decision. Charkaoui is challenging the legal framework permitting deportation to torture, the lack of due process, as well as the fact of being subject to the threat of deportation to torture and excessive procedural delays.

[edit] Ahmed Ressam withdraws his allegations

Fabrice de Pierrebourg of the Journal de Montreal testified in Federal Court on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 that, in correspondence, Ahmed Ressam had withdrawn his allegations against Adil Charkaoui.[1] De Pierrebourg had written to Ahmed Ressam in the course of writing a book about terrorism in Montreal.

Ressam, also known as the "millennial bomber", was convicted in the United States and held under an unusual arrangement whereby he was offered a reduced sentence in exchange for information. Under this arrangement, over a period of some years, he fingered 130 people as "members" of the "extremist Islamist network linked to Bin Laden". Two cases in the United States were dismissed after Ressam's evidence proved worthless. Earlier in Charkaoui's case, Charkaoui's lawyer introduced an arrest warrant for Ahmed Ressam for an incident that occurred in Montreal at a time when Ressam claimed, under oath in another case, to have been in a training camp in Afghanistan. Ressam is known to have suffered a mental breakdown while in prison.

After learning that Mr. Ressam was supposed to have named him, Charkaoui repeatedly asked to be able to cross-examine him in court. This opportunity has never been granted.

v • d • e
Alleged Canadian Militants in the War on Terrorism
Khadr family
2006 Toronto terrorism arrests
Montreal Millennium Plot
Alleged al-Qaeda members
Canadians in the Afghan Insurgency
Canadians in the Iraqi Insurgency
Canadians in Chechnya
Detained on Security Certificates
Other
Wrongly Accused

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Charkaoui witness recants, reporter tells court", CBC, Wednesday, August 22, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-23. 

[edit] External links