Suspected terrorist must stay in jail

[Said1]

Harkats wife swears he's innocent of course, BUT has been saying all along that she knows nothing about his past before he came to Canada. He said it "was too painful to talk about".

Suspected terrorist must stay in jail, judge decides




By COLIN FREEZE

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Page A10

With a report from Campbell Clark

Suspected terrorist Mohamed Harkat is a liar and a security threat to Canada, and he should remain in custody, a Federal Court judge has ruled.

Madam Justice Eleanor Dawson upheld the use of a national-security certificate against the 34-year-old Algerian, pointing to his associations with al Qaeda-linked figures and to major holes in his testimony.

"Aspects of his testimony, while possibly true, raise a real question as to whether his evidence is plausible or rings true," Judge Dawson wrote in a 75-page decision released yesterday.

Mr. Harkat, held in an Ottawa jail for the past two years pending deportation as a security threat, mounted a constitutional challenge to the legality of national-security certificates.

The judge wrote that based on secret evidence she has seen, "it is clear and beyond doubt that Mr. Harkat lied under oath to the Court in several important respects."

The judge said she did not believe many of Mr. Harkat's denials, that he helped Islamic extremists in Canada and that he travelled to Afghanistan and met with Abu Zubaydah, a top al-Qaeda trainer.

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