Mohammad Mahjoub’s security certificate decision to be rendered this week
by Justice for Mahjoub Network
Toronto, 23 October 2013 - The Federal Court has announced that it will render its final decision on Mohammad Mahjoub's "security certificate" case "late this week". Mr. Mahjoub has been held in Canada without charge on the basis of secret intelligence for thirteen years. He has been waiting for this ruling since December 2012, when the hearings on his case wrapped up.The court will announce whether or not it is upholding the immigration security certificate this week. However, the reasons for the decision will be withheld from Mr. Mahjoub and the public for another five days while the government and two “special advocates” decide what parts of the judgement will remain secret.
A rally in support of Mr. Mahjoub will be held in front of the Federal Court, 180 Queen W., in
Toronto on the day* the decision is rendered.
* As soon as the judgment is received, the time of the rally will be announced to the press by email and on the Justice for Mahjoub website, www.supportmahjoub.org. Depending on timing, Mr. Mahjoub and his legal counsel may be present to speak to media.
The extreme injustice of the entire security certificate process, as well as the specific charter violations and litany of abuses perpetrated against Mr Mahjoub by CSIS and CBSA for more than a decade, lead the Justice for Mahjoub Network to believe that the Federal Court must strike down the certificate, freeing Mr. Mahjoub. However, if the Federal Court refuses to end these unfounded, interminable and costly proceedings, Mr. Mahjoub can seek leave to appeal the decision to the Federal Court of Appeal. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard an appeal of the ruling on Mohamed Harkat's security certificate.
Thousands of people have rallied across Canada and even internationally in support of Mr Mahjoub, and every major legal, civil, labour and human rights organization in the country including Canadian Labour Congress, Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Canadian Bar Association, as well as members of all political parties and the entire New Democratic Party, have taken positions in support of Mr. Mahjoub over the last 13 years.
Timeline and Overview of Charter Violations in Mr. Mahjoub's case:
www.supportmahjoub.org/wp-content/uploads/Backgrounder-on-Abuses-Nov-2012-FINAL1.pdf.
Legal File (Constitutional Challenge, Abuse Motion, Submissions on "Reasonability"):
www.supportmahjoub.org/archives/1630
Background
Mohammad Mahjoub came to Canada to seek asylum from the repressive Mubarak regime in 1995 and was accepted as a refugee the following year. In June 2000, he was abruptly arrested under an immigration security certificate. Since June 2000, he has been held indefinitely without charge and without trial: in Toronto's Metro West Detention Centre for almost six years, including several years in solitary confinement; in "Guantanamo North" in Kingston for a total of two years; and the rest of the time under house arrest. He waged several hungerstrikes from prison protesting his situation. In 2013, after many of his conditions were removed, he embarked on a cross-country speaking tour to speak out against the injustices he has faced.
The security certificate regime itself (part of immigration law) was found to be unconstitutional in 2007. Mr. Mahjoub and the four other Muslim detainees were forced to start their cases all over again under a slightly revised process. The new regime has already been contested in the Supreme Court by Mohamed Harkat. Mr. Mahjoub is also contesting the constitutionality of the new regime.
Even within this fundamentally unjust framework, there have been a multitude of abuses. CSIS systematically destroyed evidence in this and other cases – a practice that the Supreme Court eventually ruled was illegal in 2008. A top CSIS official admitted in court that this practice allowed CSIS to escape cross-examination. CSIS and CBSA systematically violated solicitor-client privilege, electronically listening in to calls between Mr. Mahjoub and his lawyers. In late 2011, media revealed that a 2008 internal government review of Mr. Mahjoub's file concluded that, “the bulk of information” in his file is tainted by torture.
In 2012, Egyptian courts overturned the sole conviction against Mr. Mahjoub; a conviction resulting from the infamous "Returnees from Albania" trial, believed to form the fabric of CSIS's case against Mr. Mahjoub in Canada. The conviction itself had already been excluded from Mr. Mahjoub's case by a justice of the Federal Court of Canada in 2010 because it was based on torture. However, Mr. Mahjoub's case in Canada continued.
The CSIS researcher who assembled the 2008 Security Intelligence Report (basis of the case against Mr. Mahjoub) admitted under cross-examination in 2012 that he had no prior knowledge of security certificate cases.
Even within the government, the case was controversial. In May 2013, media reported that Bob Paulson, current head of the RCMP, told an internal government review in 2009 that the security certificate process was "… completely off the rails.” An earlier RCMP memo only recently released under the Privacy Act shows that RCMP never even suspected that Mr. Mahjoub was involved in any criminal activity in Canada.
Mr. Mahjoub's lawyers have argued to the Federal Court that the many, fundamental rights violations that have taken place in his case have made a fair outcome impossible. Mr. Mahjoub has therefore asked the court to strike down the certificate and grant him a fair remedy.
Media Advisory
Source:
JUSTICE FOR MAHJOUB
www.supportmahjoub.org
justiceformahjoub@gmail.com
facebook.com/supportmahjoub
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