A suspected Syrian terrorist who has spent seven years in mostly segregated custody in Canada is claiming that his indefinite detention without charge or trial amounts to cruelty, his lawyer said on Sunday.
In a challenge filed in Federal Court on Friday, Hassan Almrei argues that his lengthy incarceration violates his constitutional rights, Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman told the Canadian Press.
“It’s seven years and we’re saying it’s unconstitutional,” Waldman said, speaking from Argentina. “It’s cruel and inhumane treatment.”
Almrei, who has traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, was arrested after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US. He is one of five Muslim foreigners held under a national security certificate — which allows the Canadian government to detain them indefinitely as a threat to public safety based on secret evidence.
The other four have been granted bail under stringent conditions while their lawyers fight Ottawa’s contention they have terrorist ties. The men, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, Mohamed Harkat and Adil Charkaoui, deny terrorist links and have fought deportation, saying they will be tortured if returned to their home countries, which include Egypt and Algeria.
Almrei, 34, was linked to former Toronto resident Nabil al-Marabh, for whom he got a fake Canadian passport. Initially touted by US security officials as a Canadian connection to the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Marabh was convicted in the US in 2002 of a routine immigration violation and deported to Syria in 2004.
Secret court hearings on whether Canada’s national security certificates are “reasonable” are scheduled to resume in the fall amid ongoing legal clashes about the fairness of the entire process.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
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