Canada's spy agency has made public some of its accusations against a Montreal man held without charge on a security certificate, including an allegation that he attended an al Qaeda training camp. But critics dismissed the claims as meaningless.
"They're simply allegations," Matthew Behrens, an activist with Campaign to Stop Secret Trials, told 麻豆影视. "They might as well be saying these guys are from Mars, because there's no evidence to back it up."
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service released documents Friday that listed the various allegations against Moroccan-born Adil Charkaoui.
CSIS claims Charkaoui was actually in charge of training recruits at the al Qaeda camp, and also accuses him of talking about taking over a commercial aircraft for "aggressive ends," and applying for airport jobs in what may have been part of a terrorist plot.
Charkaoui has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence. A group of supporters issued a statement on Saturday, saying Charkaoui wants "a meaningful opportunity to clear his name of precise and defined charges in the context of a fair and open trial."
The full statement can be read .
Ottawa is currently seeking to deport Charkaoui and four other Muslim men who officials claim have terrorist connections.
Security certificates are rarely used, but enable the government to use secret court hearings, indefinite prison terms and summary deportations when dealing with non-citizens accused of having terrorist ties.
The system has been revised so that suspects now have special advocates, but the accused still do not have the right to see all of the evidence against them.
Because of the revision -- passed by Parliament after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the old process to be unconstitutional -- Ottawa was forced to refile all of the present security certificates last week.
Although Behrens criticized the accusations levelled against Charkaoui by CSIS, he said the decision to make the information public was a welcome step in the right direction.
"When more information comes out, that's a good thing," he said.
Here are some of the accusations made against Charkaoui and the four other accused:
- Officials allege Charkaoui told CSIS that Abderraouf Hannachi sent him to an al Qaeda training camp. Hannachi, also of Montreal, sent the millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam to similar camps, the Globe and Mail reported. CSIS also claims Charkaoui trained terrorist recruits.
- Syrian-born Hassan Almrei is accused of forging documents, and apparently using access cards to trespass on a restricted area of Toronto's Pearson International Airport in 1999.
- Mahmoud Jaballah, of Egypt, is accused of communicating with terrorist cells, along with Osama bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri - who he allegedly contact on a satellite phone and called him "the father."
- CSIS has accused Mohamed Harkat of being an Algerian sleeper agent and claims to have overheard him possibly discussing terrorist activity.
With a report by CTV's Roger Smith in Ottawa
