Mohamed Harkat: 11 years of injustice

Dear friend,

December 10th (International Human Rights Day), will mark the 11th anniversary of Mohamed Harkat's arrest under a Security Certificate.

His life has been ruined by allegations and hearsay. Mohamed was arrested on December 10th, 2002 almost 11 years ago. He spent 43 months in jail without ever being charged and was held in solitary confinement for the first year. When first released in June of 2006, he had the strictest bail conditions in Canadian history. (GPS, surveillance cameras in his home, mail and phone intercepted, 24 hour supervision by court appointed sureties, supervised outings by CBSA and many more.) His wife was a full time unpaid guard and prisoner in her own home for years. Mohamed is still waiting for justice.

However, we are happy to report that since July, Mohamed is now GPS free. Also, after a decade of being banned from using the internet and a cell phone, it is finally possible for him to surf the net and exchange emails with family and supporters. He looked at his website for the first time and is discovering the world wide web for the first time in his life!

In addition to being arrested and detained indefinitely, without charge, and often in isolation, all three men under Security Certificates face possible deportation to imprisonment, torture or death. None of the men have ever been afforded the opportunity to counter the allegations against them because the evidence remains a secret, and the information that is released to them is based on hearsay and innuendo. Their lives and their family's lives have been irrevocably dehumanized, their names associated with terrorism. Security Certificates have the lowest standard of proof in Canadian courts. The judge's mandate is only to rule on whether there were "reasonable grounds" to issue a Security Certificate.

On October 10th, 2013, the Harkat legal team appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada on the Constitutionality of the security certificate regime, and the Government also appealed - to protect "human sources" or informants (one of whom who failed a lie detector test in Moe's case, and who were never cross-examined in secret proceedings under the revised system), and to continue to use destroyed evidence. (All original material in the case, intercepts, interviews, notes were destroyed by CSIS.) The Supreme Court of Canada had already ruled in 2008 that the destruction of evidence was unconstitutional and ordered a change of policy at CSIS. The decision from the Supreme Court of Canada is expected in a few months.

To mark the upcoming 11th anniversary of Mohamed's arrest, we urge you to do the following things;

1-Please ask everyone you know to visit www.harkatstatement.com and sign our Statement against Security Certificates. Thousands of Canadians have already signed it, including high profile Canadians, major unions, the NDP Party, groups and organizations across the country and worldwide.

2-Ask your family, friends, co-workers, your union & local, group, committee and their members to endorse our Statement. Print it and circulate it. Our petition is regularly tabled in parliament.

3-Follow us on Twitter @harkatupdates, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/463905400308241

4-Finally, we need your financial support, but I know there are many good causes out there that also need your help! If you have donated in the past, THANK YOU for your generosity and solidarity.

Please support our work. Help with our campaign expenses, support our legal and political research, and consider making a small donation to support travel and other related expenses.

Please send your cheque/money order or donation to:

The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee

14 Perkins Street, Ottawa, ON, K1R 7G5

If we stop Security Certificates, it will help others facing similar attacks in Canada and abroad face those challenges successfully. An injury to one is an injury to all; and a victory for some of us is a victory for all of us. But we can't do it without you. THANK YOU for your support and solidarity!

May justice prevail!

Sophie Harkat, Wife of Mohamed Harkat

www.justiceforharkat.com

This is republished from Justice for Mohamed Harkat