TORONTO: Canadian courts handed down rulings Thursday that could send one terror suspect back to his native Egypt and another off to the United States to face charges that he plotted to kill Americans abroad.
A court cleared the way Thursday for an extradition hearing that could force Canadian Abdullah Khadr to be sent to the United States to face terrorism charges. The Ontario Superior Court agreed the United States has the right to proceed with the hearing, after authorization from Canada s federal justice minister.
The 24-year-old Khadr has been in jail since December, when he was arrested on a U.S. arrest warrant. He faces charges in the United States of plotting to kill Americans abroad. Khadr is scheduled to appear in court March 30 to set a date for his extradition hearing.
In another ruling Thursday, Federal Court Judge Andrew MacKay upheld a government decision to deport suspected terrorist Mahmoud Jaballah back to his native Egypt.
Ottawa accused Jaballah of having ties to Al-Qaeda and has been trying since 2001 to send him back to Egypt, even though his supporters say he risks torture there. Jaballah arrived in Canada in 1996 and worked as principal of an Islamic school he founded. The Canadian authorities assert that the father of six has ties to Al-Qaeda and were a member of the Egyptian terrorist group al-Jihad. He was tortured in Egypt on several occasions for those alleged ties, but never charged or convicted of any crime.
His lawyer Barbara Jackman had told the court that Jaballah would be tortured if sent back to Egypt. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that people facing the risk of torture in their homelands can only be deported under exceptional circumstances.
Jaballah is one of four Arab Muslim men being held in Canadian jails under security certificates that allow Ottawa to detain suspects without trial or evidence in the name of national security. Human rights groups have condemned Canada for holding the men, all of whom say they face risk of torture if returned to their native Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Egypt. The security certificate for Jaballah is still before the courts. If the certificate is upheld, it becomes a deportation order that cannot be appealed. The government seems pretty set on deporting all of these guys, said Matthew Behrens, a spokesman for the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada.
There s a lot of racism involved. These guys are all Arab Muslims, so I think literally the Canadian government is trying to take charge in what it sees as its role in the so-called war on terror, Behrens said. They don t care if innocent people get shafted in the process.
The Canadian, Khadr, admits attending an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan for two weeks when he was 13, but denies being a terrorist. His father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was an alleged Al-Qaeda financier and friend of Osama bin Laden before being killed by Pakistani forces.
His 19-year-old brother, Omar, is charged with killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and is currently being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Khadr was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in February. The indictment alleged that Khadr bought AK-47 and mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and containers of mine components for Al-Qaeda to use against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Khadr bought the weapons at the request of his Egyptian-born Canadian father, who was killed in 2003 when a Pakistani helicopter fired on a house where he was staying with other senior Al-Qaeda operatives, authorities said. Pakistani intelligence officers detained Khadr in Islamabad in October 2004, and he was returned to Canada in December and arrested. AP
