Hassan Almrei

Egyptian refugee Mohammad Mahjoub seeks an end to proceedings against him

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Published April 24, 2012, in Adil Charkaoui, Hassan Almrei, Mohammad Mahjou

By John Bonnar

mahjoub.mp3

Artist: John BonnarTitle: Mohammad Mahjoub press briefingYear: 2012Length: 14:08 minutes (12.95 MB)
Format: Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)

From the press release:

Egyptian Refugee Mohammad Mahjoub was in court again yesterday in a bid to end proceedings against him after a court-ordered inquiry into a Department of Justice seizure of his confidential legal documents found multiple instances of prejudice that make continued trial against Mr. Mahjoub untenable.

Last summer, the government seized boxes of confidential materials belonging to Mr. Mahjoub and his lawyers from the court, viewed and copied them and mixed them with their own. The Court ordered an independent third party, Prothonotory Aalto, to supervise the separation of these documents. The results of Prothonotory Aalto’s supervised review are being presented to the court. They show multiple instances of Highly Privileged documents and Extremely Privileged documents viewed by the Department of Justice.

“The Department of Justice seized my legal documents and misled the courts,” Mr. Mahjoub said. “I’ve lost all my confidence in the Department of Justice and the security establishment.”

Mr. Mahjoub has been detained without charge under a “security certificate” since June 2000. Despite numerous scandals – from CSIS listening in to calls with his lawyers, to the use of illegal information obtained under torture – the case has dragged on for almost 12 years.

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Former terror suspect Hassan Almrei sues feds for false imprisonment

By:
Published May 4, 2010, in Hassan Almrei

OTTAWA – A Syrian-born man who was held for more than eight years on a national security certificate is suing the federal government for negligence and false imprisonment.

Hassan Almrei filed his claim today in Ontario Superior Court.

In mid-December, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley struck down the security certificate against Almrei, who was arrested in October 2001 on terror suspicions.

Almrei, 36, came to Canada in January 1999 on a false United Arab Emirates passport and attained refugee status the following year.

Mosley said there were reasonable grounds to believe Almrei was a security danger when he was detained just after the 9-11 attacks — but there’s no reason to support that belief now.

Almrei, whose claims have not been proven in court, is seeking $16 million in damages.

Source

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Guantanamo North must be shut down

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Published July 9, 2009, in Abousfian Abdelrazik, Hassan Almrei

His friends and supporters last month celebrated the return to Montreal of Abousfian Abdulrazik. He’s the Canadian of Sudanese origin caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare, forced for the last year to sleep in the foyer of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum because he was on a no-fly list, though he was cleared of all suspicion that he was a security threat. It is a small but significant victory for the rule of law. But it comes as more disturbing information is being uncovered about the basis upon which five Canadians, all suspected Islamist extremists with past connections to terrorism, have been jailed on controversial national security certificates.

In the case of Syrian refugee claimant Hassan Almrei, who arrived in Canada in 1999 on what turned out to be a fake passport, and was detained after 9/11, a Federal Court judge has revealed that a confidential informant who pointed the accusing finger at Almrei failed a lie detector test and a second informant did not undergo that test, which the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) falsely claimed was given. Almrei was the last of the five to be released from a special six-unit holding cell opened in 2006 for terrorist suspects in Kingston penitentiary. It brings to mind the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the U.S. detained “unlawful combatants” suspected of terrorism and where it practiced water boarding to extract information from prisoners. U.S. President Barak Obama has banned torture and ordered that the facility be closed and we urge that Canada follow suit.

 

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CSIS mistakes could affect Almrei verdict: Judge

By:
Published July 3, 2009, in Hassan Almrei

Michelle Shephard
national security reporter

A Federal Court judge said revelations that Canada’s spy service mishandled evidence in the terrorism case of a Syrian refugee is of “great concern to the court” and could affect the outcome of the case.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service admitted it failed to disclose evidence that a confidential informant was “deceptive” when answering questions. A second source cited in the government’s case against Hassan Almrei was not subjected to a lie-detector test, contrary to what the agency had claimed in court documents.

The disclosures were outlined in two letters written by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley and obtained by the Star earlier this week. They come just weeks after an Ottawa judge criticised CSIS for omitted evidence in a separate terrorism case, prompting an internal CSIS investigation.

 

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Terror cases should be dropped because CSIS lacks credibility: Lawyers

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Published July 1, 2009, in Hassan Almrei, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Harkat, Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub

By Janice Tibbetts

OTTAWA — Lawyers for two foreign terror suspects said Tuesday the cases against the men should be dropped in light of new revelations that Canada’s spy agency admitted, for the second time in a month, that its intelligence sources were tainted.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s faulty information indicates there is a systemic problem with the agency’s credibility that further undermines the secretive federal program of issuing security certificates, say lawyers Lorne Waldman and Norm Boxall.

“It is obviously a very, very serious problem and it goes to the heart of the administration of justice,” said Waldman.

He will ask a judge next week to quash the security certificate against Hassan Almrei, a Toronto man Ottawa is seeking to deport on suspicion of having terrorist ties.

 

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New evidence prompts calls for greater scrutiny of CSIS

By:
Published June 30, 2009, in Hassan Almrei

michelle shephard
tonda maccharles

New revelations about the government’s mishandling of evidence in a second high-profile terrorism case are prompting calls for an independent investigation into Canada’s spy service.

The Toronto Star has learned that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service admitted it failed to disclose evidence that a confidential informant was “deceptive” in answering questions and that a second source was not subjected to a lie detector test as the service had previously claimed.

The disclosures were made in two letters written by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley to lawyers for Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei and come just weeks after another judge slammed CSIS for shoddy evidence.

 

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Freed Syrian refugee is a $575,000 man

By:
Published March 4, 2009, in Canada, Hassan Almrei, Home Monitoring

Monitoring Hassan Almrei in Mississauga townhouse a costly process

   

AARON HARRIS/TORONTO STAR

Hassan Almrei, 35, under house arrest after seven years in jail, adjusts

a tracking device on his leg. Monitoring the Syrian refugee in his Mississauga

townhouse is a costly process.

Michelle Shephard

NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER

For two hours each day, Hassan Almrei sits tethered to an electrical outlet as he charges the clunky GPS bracelet permanently affixed to his right ankle. He can’t let it run out of juice, or the security agents responsible for tracking him will come running.

Almrei also logs the time and name of his pre-screened visitors with Pavlovian efficiency as soon as he hears a knock on the door. Three ceiling cameras watch his every move, windows have alarms, his phone is tapped and one room is occupied by a black box the size of a small fridge, which emits a high-pitched hum and is described only as a “component (that) is required to monitor Mr. Almrei in his home,” by a Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson.

This is life inside a three-story Mississauga townhouse where the 35-year-old Syrian refugee moved following his release Friday after seven years in jail.

It will cost about $575,000 a year to pay for the agents’ salaries and the “operations and management” of the electronic equipment, agency spokesperson Tracie LeBlanc says. But, notes Mike Larsen, a researcher at York University’s Centre for International Security Studies, there may be other costs, such as wiretap analysis done by Canada’s spy service. Then there are the surveillance notes, videos and pictures that need to be analyzed by separate agency agents.

 

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Almrei slated for release today

By:
Published February 27, 2009, in Hassan Almrei, Released

By: Louie Rosella

Torstar Photo

Mississauga’s Hassan Almrei is expected to be released from the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre today.

After spending more than seven years in custody without being charged, Hassan Almrei is being released from jail today.
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) spokesperson Tracey LeBlanc told The News the Cooksville man will be released from the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, sometime today.

Almrei, 35, a Syrian refugee accused of having ties to the Al Qaeda terror network, has spent the past seven years behind bars in maximum security facilities after being arrested at his Agnes St. apartment shortly after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

He has been detained at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre for the past two years. Prior to that, Almrei was kept at Toronto West Detention Centre.

“This (his release) is the first step forward he’s had in a long time,” Almrei’s lawyer, Lorne Waldman, said recently.
“The conditions of release are quite severe, but they’re more or less in line with (similar) cases,” he added, referring to terms of release for four other men accused by the Canadian government of having terrorism
connections.

 

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Time to shut ‘Guantanamo North’: Critics

By:
Published January 26, 2009, in Hassan Almrei

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service

With the pending release with conditions of Syrian national Hassan Almrei, who is being held on a controversial 'security certificate' at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, the six-bunk prison near Kingston, Ont., will be effectively mothballed.

With the pending release
with conditions of Syrian
national Hassan Almrei,
who is being held on a
controversial ‘security
certificate’ at the Kingston
Immigration Holding
Centre, the six-bunk
prison near Kingston,
Ont., will be effectively
mothballed.

OTTAWA – The Canadian government is considering whether to keep open a high-security facility for foreign terror suspects – dubbed Guantanamo North by its critics – now that the centre is about to release its last detainee.

With the pending exit of Hassan Almrei, who is being held on a controversial “security certificate” permitting the government to detain non-Canadians without charge, the six-bunk prison near Kingston, Ont., will be effectively mothballed.

“The Canada Border Services Agency is currently exploring options for the future of the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre,” media spokeswoman Tracie LeBlanc wrote in an e-mail to Canwest News Service.

LeBlanc added the agency is taking into account that all four detainees who have done time in the facility since its April 2006 opening could still be re-arrested and returned.

Critics say it’s a good time for the government to stop spending $2 million a year to operate a facility that has become a dormant symbol of Canada’s war on terror.

The pending closure of the U.S. military unit at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has also served as fodder for opponents to revive their long-standing argument that people who aren’t charged with anything should not be detained indefinitely.

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Detainee walking into legal limbo

By:
Published January 12, 2009, in Bagram, Canada, Hassan Almrei, Syria

VIDEO: Hassan Almrei speaks out

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR
Syrian refugee Hassan Ahmed Almrei, pictured at an immigration holding centre in Millhaven, has been held for more than seven years.

As he gets set to leave ‘Guantanamo North,’ Hassan Almrei’s case raises vexing questions

Michelle Shephard

NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER

MILLHAVEN – In many ways, Hassan Almrei will just be trading one prison for another.

The 35-year-old Syrian refugee will soon leave this immigration holding centre that critics have dubbed “Guantanamo North” and move into a home near Toronto.

The conditions of his release amount to a form of house arrest and include surveillance cameras, a GPS monitoring bracelet and monitoring of phone conversations.

Almrei has been detained since 2001 and is one of five Arab men the Canadian government has accused of terrorism connections.

It alleges he was part of a terrorist forgery ring and supports Al Qaeda’s ideology. He denies both claims.

“It’s quite a journey, seven years of my life,” Almrei said during an interview last week. Wearing jeans and a fleece jacket with a maple leaf pattern, Almrei recalled how difficult his incarceration was in the first years at Toronto’s West Detention Centre. “Everybody (would) come to my window and give me a piece of his or her mind,” he said.

But having only been in Canada a few years, he spoke little English.

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