Coalition for Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 10 May 2005

Canada challenged on deportation to torture

Montreal, 10 May 2005 – Security Certificate victim Adil Charkaoui categorically denies the allegations made against him yesterday by the Moroccan Public Relations Minister, Mr. Mohammed Nabil Benabdallah and demands to know the basis of any warrant against him in Morocco. The allegations were made at a public talk held at McGill University yesterday evening, and repeated in an interview with La Presse. The Coalition for Justice for Adil Charkaoui believes that the Minister’s remarks makes it more urgent than ever for the government of Canada to declare that it will not force Mr. Charkaoui to return to Morocco.

“It has been almost two years since I was arrested, and I am still waiting for an opportunity to clear my name in front of a fair and independent tribunal. I am still waiting even to be charged!” said Mr. Charkaoui. “As I have always maintained, I have nothing to do with terrorism.” Since learning of the Moroccan arrest warrant in February, Mr. Charkaoui’s lawyer has been asking Morocco to communicate the basis of the alleged warrant. She has not received a response to date.

Under the Immigration Law’s much-criticised “security certificate” process, Canada continues to deny Charkaoui his right to a fair trial. Despite Mr. Benabdallah’s upbeat portrayal of Morocco during his lecture yesterday, there is little evidence to believe that Mr. Charkaoui would be given a fair trial in Morocco either.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International agree with the assessment of Immigration Canada that Mr. Charkaoui would be at risk of torture and further abuse of his rights if he is forced to return to Morocco. Since 2 May 2005, close to 1000 prisoners are on an unlimited hunger strike in Moroccan jails, demanding that their cases be re-opened and that they be given a fair trial without torture, and demanding an international inquiry into the 16 May 2003 Casa Blanca attacks, to which they deny any link.

The judicial review of Charkaoui’s “security certificate” has been in suspension since March 2005, after Morocco announced in February that they had an arrest warrant for Charkaoui. The revelation was highly embarassing for Canada, which had based its decision that Charkaoui could be deported without risk on “diplomatic assurances” from Morocco that they had nothing against Mr. Charkaoui. Morocco’s about-face forced Canada to retract its earlier decision.

Morocco has been named as one of four countries used by the US and UK in their extraordinary rendition programmes. The others are Eygpt, Jordan and Syria (where Canadians Maher Arar, Ahmad Abou El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nurredin were imprisoned and tortured).

Canada’s acceptance of diplomatic assurances in the case of Charkaoui and the other “security certificate” detainees drew strong criticism from Human Rights Watch in a report that was presented at the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva last week (www.hrw.org). Canada, responding, admitted that its laws were not in compliance with the absolute international prohibition against deportation to torture. Charkaoui has been waiting since March for the Canadian Minister of Public Safety to start the process to formulate a new decision on whether he should be protected from deportation to Morocco, in light of the clear dangers of torture and other abuse that await him.

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