Suspected Syrian terrorist challenges 7-year detention in Canada

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A suspected Syrian terrorist who has spent seven years in mostly segregated custody in Canada is claiming that his indefinite detention without charge or trial amounts to cruelty, his lawyer said Sunday. In a challenge filed in Federal Court on Friday, Hassan Almrei argues that his lengthy incarceration violates his constitutional rights, Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman told The Canadian Press. "It's seven years and we're saying it's unconstitutional," Waldman said, speaking from Argentina. "It's cruel and inhumane treatment." Almrei, who has traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, was arrested in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in America. He is one of five Muslim foreigners held under a national security certificate - which allows the Canadian government to detain them indefinitely as a threat to public safety based on secret evidence.