CSIS in the dock at Mahjoub security certificate hearings
by Justice for Mahjoub Network
The Mahjoub "security certificate" reasonability hearings are set to resume after more than a year's delay. Mr. Mahjoub has called key government officials to testify about their involvement in assembling the case against him. The hearings, which continue into the fall, will begin with the cross-examination of someone identified only as "CSIS#3".

CSIS#3 is believed to be the main author of the secret "Security Intelligence Report" (SIR) that has kept Mr. Mahjoub behind bars or under household lock-down for more than 12 years, without ever having been charged.

Exceptionally, Mr. Mahjoub will be in Ottawa for the hearings. The hearings will also be carried in Toronto via video.

Mr. Mahjoub is one of three Muslim men, including Mahmoud Jaballah (arrested 2001 in Toronto) and Mohamed Harkat (arrested 2002 in Ottawa) still fighting to free themselves from the injustice of security certificates.

Background

Mr. Mahjoub was arrested on 26 June 2000 under a "security certificate". He has never been charged but has been in prison or under house arrest ever since. A security certificate is part of immigration law which allows the government to indefinitely detain and eventually deport people on the basis of their profile. The security certificates are reviewed by the Federal Court in a series of "reasonability hearings". Standards in these hearings are very low: there are no charges, hearings can take place in secret, much or all of the evidence is secret, the presumption of innocence does not apply, the standard of proof is exceptionally low, the government relies on hearsay and unsourced information as 'evidence' and so on.

It's been an eventful year in the Mahjoub case: last summer, Department of Justice employees made off with boxes of Mr. Mahjoub's confidential defence documents. This led to the suspension of reasonability hearings for an entire year. In December, media reported that court summaries of confidential memos dating from 2008 showed that CSIS acknowledged that the "bulk" of their case against Mr. Mahjoub was based on information likely obtained under torture. In February, for the first time in 12 years, Mr. Mahjoub was permitted to leave Toronto; he immediately embarked on a seven-city speaking tour to tell his story to the public. In May, the Federal Court dismissed 11 government lawyers and clerks - all but the main lawyer, David Tyndale - who were involved in the seizure of Mr. Mahjoub's confidential defence documents. Finally, in June, on the eve of 12th anniversary protests in support of Mr. Mahjoub, the Federal Court threw out key parts of CSIS's case against Mr. Mahjoub: after 12 years, the court acknowledged that CSIS-prepared summaries of certain conversations were not reliable as evidence and were no substitute for the original transcripts, which CSIS had destroyed.

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