High court to deliver latest twists in marathon Harkat terrorism case
OTTAWA - The long-running case of former pizza delivery man Mohamed Harkat — an Algerian refugee accused of terrorist links — will take another twist or two Thursday when the Supreme Court decides whether to hear appeals from each side.
Harkat, 44, was arrested almost 10 years ago in Ottawa on suspicion of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent, but he denies any involvement in terrorism.
The federal government wants to deport Harkat under a national security certificate, a rarely used tool for removing non-citizens suspected of being terrorists or spies.
In April, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of the security certificate system.
But the same court ruled that summaries of some mid-1990s conversations should be excluded from evidence against Harkat because the Canadian Security Intelligence Service destroyed the original recordings.
The ruling left both sides unhappy and each has asked for a hearing in the Supreme Court — an uncommon turn of events.
