OTTAWA - The Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of a Guantanamo Bay inmate seeking Canadian intelligence documents.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian citizen, lived in Montreal for two months in late 1999 and early 2000 after moving from Germany.
Slahi, 39, left Canada after CSIS and the RCMP started questioning him about ties to Ahmed Ressam, the so-called millennium bomber who planned to attack Los Angeles airport.
Slahi also faces allegations that, while in Germany, he recruited some of the al-Qaida operatives later involved in the 9-11 attacks.
He has acknowledged joining the mujahadeen in its fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But he says he had no role in the millennium bomb plot and denies any association with al-Qaida, the Taliban or their associates since 1992.
He has been held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than seven years. An attempted prosecution was called off when questions arose about whether key evidence had been obtained by torture.
Slahi alleges he was interviewed by CSIS and the RCMP on at least two, and possibly more occasions, in 2003 and 2004. He says Canadian files could corroborate his claim of abuse at the hands of his American captors, which he is pursuing in the U.S. justice system.
The Federal Court of Canada ruled last year that he is not entitled to the information because he is neither a Canadian citizen nor subject to legal proceedings in Canada.
The Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision last September, prompting Slahi to seek a hearing in the Supreme Court.
Slahi's Canadian lawyer, Nathan Whitling, said Thursday that all applications to the high court are longshots.
"I thought it was a pretty important case, but apparently the judges disagreed."
Algerian-born Ahcene Zemiri, who also lived in Canada for a time and was originally part of the case, was released from Guantanamo last month and sent back to his homeland.
