MONTREAL: Two Egyptians jailed for suspected terror links have been released, media reports said, two months after Canada s top court quashed the extraordinary security measures that permitted their detention.
Mahmud Jaballah, jailed since 2001, was released Friday and placed under house arrest, the daily Globe and Mail said Saturday.
Nobody s allowed to visit the house unless they re preapproved, said his son, Ahmed. They re going to be installing video surveillance cameras at the front and back entrances. So it s strict.
Another Egyptian, Mohammed Mahjub, who had been jailed in Canada since 2000, was set free Thursday on the condition that he wear an electronic surveillance bracelet and remain in Toronto with his wife. The two had been detained under Canada s so-called security certificates which allowed Ottawa to detain foreigners suspected of terror ties without charges for many years.
The controversial security certificates – which permit secret court hearings, undisclosed evidence, and indefinite incarceration – have been enshrined in Canada s immigration act since 1978.
The procedures were found to breach constitutional rights and were overturned by the high court, though they were to remain in place for one year to give parliament a chance to amend them. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, they were used to jail five suspected Al-Qaeda sleeper agents.
The release of the Egyptian pair means only one of these suspects, a Syrian named Hassan Almrei, remains in Canadian custody. The other two were released in February under similarly strict conditions.
Jaballah was arrested in 2001 in Toronto and accused of belonging to an Egyptian group with alleged links to Al-Qaeda. He refused to be deported, saying he would face torture in Egypt.
Mahjub had been in jail since 2000. Canadian intelligence alleged he was a leader of an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group and was taking part in terrorist activities. -AFP
