Sidhartha Banerjee, THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL - The lawyer for accused Basque terror suspect Ivan Apaolaza Sancho says there is not enough evidence to link his client to a terrorist group and that he should be allowed to remain in Canada.

Sancho is seeking refugee status in Canada based on claims he will be tortured if returned to Spain.

Following an Immigration and Refugee Board admissibility review on Wednesday, lawyer William Sloan said he will submit a "non-suit" motion stating that the evidence presented by the Canadian government is insufficient to tie his client to terrorist activities.

"There's no evidence at all, all there is are accusations," Sloan said outside the hearing room, adding he hasn't been able to see any evidence provided by Spain.

"This is a disguised extradition," Sloan added. "For reasons that are their own, they don't want to proceed with an extradition."

But Canadian immigration officials insisted the warrants and paper evidence provided by Spanish authorities are enough to show that Sancho, 36, has strong ties to the terrorist group ETA, a Basque nationalist organization.

Claude Beaupre, a lawyer representing the government, told Immigration and Refugee Board commissioner Louis Dube that a mountain of paper evidence indicates Sancho was indeed linked to the ETA from 1991 onwards.

Beaupre said there are numerous links between Sancho and a number of targeted attacks in Spain.

The government lawyer also said Sancho had ties to Victor Tejedor Bilbao, 51, another alleged Basque terrorist who was living illegally in Canada and arrested just weeks before Sancho.

Bilbao was served with pre-removal risk assessment papers by the Citizenship and Immigration Department at a detention review last week in Vancouver.

Spanish officials accuse Sancho of being a member of ETA and of participating in terrorist activities, including several car bombings, one of which killed a Spanish army officer.

Sancho has been jailed since his arrest by the RCMP on an immigration warrant last June 20.

He is detained in a wing of a Montreal detention centre that is generally reserved for high risk criminals.

The stone-faced Sancho, speaking to the hearing via video link, refused to answer questions regarding his criminal past or the accusations awaiting him in Spain.

Sloan said his client faces serious charges in Spain and he instructed Sancho not to respond to any questions regarding his alleged criminal activities.

"In that context, I think he should have the same constitutional protections against self-incrimination as anyone who is facing criminal charges," Sloan added.

Sancho applied for refugee status in Canada following his arrest in the summer. Before officials can evaluate his request, they must determine if he is admissible to Canada.

Dube is to rule on Sancho's status in Canada in mid-January, after considering Sloan's non-suit motion.

During his hearing, Sancho admitted he arrived in Canada from France under the name Jon Alcade, rooming initially with Bilbao in Vancouver but denied ever discussing anything ETA related with him.

He lived in a number of apartments in that city before moving to Montreal in October 2006.

He adopted a new moniker, Jose Arturo Perales, in 2005.

Sancho also described how he was able to create an identity using a social insurance number and a fake passport pieced together on a computer.

"It was a legal name in Canada and I could work more easily," Sancho said through a translator.

Sancho said he was forced to travel under different names because of terrorism allegations that appeared periodically in Spanish newspapers.

"I feared I would be expulsed to Spain and tortured," Sancho said.

He said he never attempted to legalize his stay in Canada until after he was arrested by the RCMP on a ferry near Levis, Que. in June.

Sloan says Sancho faces torture from authorities if he's returned to Spain.

"It's an indication that he's afraid to be tortured if he is returned to Spain, that is what his refugee claim is about," Sloan said.

Dube ruled late Wednesday that Sancho must remain in custody because the decision against Bilbao in British Columbia makes Sancho an even greater flight risk.