Terrorism: Canadian court quashes case against alleged terror suspect

FOCUS Information Agency - The Federal Court of Canada on Wednesday set aside the last of the tough restrictions against a Moroccan man the government wanted to deport because of alleged links to al Qaeda, Reuters reported.

Ottawa had imprisoned Adil Charkaoui or kept him under surveillance for six years under a security certificate, based on classified information from Canada's spy agency. The government was seeking court approval to deport Charkaoui, a Montreal resident who emigrated from Morocco but was not a Canadian citizen.

Based on information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Ottawa had claimed that Charkaoui had trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

But because the court had ordered that the information from CSIS be made public, the government decided to withdraw it, rather than endanger the spy agency's sources.

Once the information was withdrawn, the Federal Court lifted restrictions on Charkaoui last month, and on Wednesday it declared the security certificate itself to be void.

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