The Federal Court judge presiding over Adil Charkaoui's case chastised the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and agreed to hear defence arguments next week.
Charkaoui, accused of being a sleeper agent for al-Qaeda, has been imprisoned for 20 months under a national-security certificate.
The controversial certificates let police hold prisoners without charging them or giving them full access to the evidence against them.
Adil Charkaoui, 31, accused of being an al-Qaeda operative, has been incarcerated for 20 months.
- FROM DEC. 10, 2004: Security certificates constitutional: court
Defence lawyer Dominique Larochelle moved to have the case dropped a day after CSIS revealed in court that it had destroyed transcripts and notes from two interviews in 2002.
Charkaoui "is currently deprived of the evidence that he gave to them that was beneficial and that would have ensured a fair and complete defence," Larochelle told reporters.
Charkaoui, 31, is in court this week for a bail hearing, his fourth since being arrested in May 2003.
In 2002, intelligence agents held two interviews with Charkaoui, a permanent Canadian resident who was born in Morocco and has lived in Montreal since 1995.
The report they wrote based on those interviews is part of the evidence against him.
On Monday, government lawyer Daniel Roussy told court that the notes had been destroyed, but stressed that CSIS agents normally do this after writing a final report.
Larochelle said she wanted to see the notes or hear a recording of those meetings because she felt they might cast her client in a favourable light.
She told court on Tuesday that their destruction undermines the case against her client.
Justice Simon Noel said he was troubled by the destruction of the documents.
At least six men are being held under the certificates, which have provoked fierce condemnation from critics who say they violate human rights and are unconstitutional.
| SECURITY CERTIFICATES |
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Citizenship and Immigration Canada can remove a person considered to be a security threat by issuing a Security Certificate signed by the solicitor general and the minister of citizenship and immigration, and endorsed by a judge of the Federal Court. When a security certificate is issued: If the Federal Court decides that the certificate is unreasonable, it is quashed. If the court decides that it is reasonable, the certificate becomes an order for removal of the person. The court's decision can't be appealed. |
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