Canadian court strikes down controversial anti-terror law

Feb 24, 2007, 12:25 GMT

Washington - Canada's highest court on Friday struck down an anti-terrorism law that allows authorities to indefinitely detain and deport foreign-born terrorist suspects without revealing evidence, and gave the Canadian government one year to modify the rules.

The unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court decision said the individual rights of three men accused of links to al-Qaeda should not be superceded by national security concerns.

'Before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process,' Judge Beverley McLaughlin wrote in the court's judgment.

Authorities have until now had the ability to issue so-called security certificates to arrest and deport terrorism suspects living in Canada, hold non-public trials and not disclose evidence against the accused.

The Canadian government has argued the system is necessary to safeguard public security, and on Friday said it would not respond to the court's decision before examining the ruling more closely.

Lawyers for Moroccan national Adil Charkoui, Syrian-born Hassan Almrei and Algerian Mohamed Harkat, who were arrested separately between 2001 and 2003 for alleged links to al-Qaeda, argued that the men's constitutional rights were violated because they were unable to see the evidence against them.

Friday's ruling leaves their cases in legal limbo until the government rewrites the legislation to meet the court's requirements. All three have pleaded not guilty.