Mohammad Mahjoub, an Egyptian refugee held without charge since June, 2000 on secret "evidence" neither he nor his lawyers are allowed to see, received a notice of imminent deportation to Egypt on Friday, August 27 in his solitary confinement cell at Metro West Detention Centre. The note said the government intends to deport Mahjoub to Egypt within two weeks.

The federal government intends to deport Mahjoub even though its own immigration bureaucracy has come to the conclusion that he would be at substantial risk of torture if sent back to Egypt. Such a decision flies in the face of Canada's signed commitments to international law, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as Canada's own Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), which states that the act is to be construed and applied in a manner that "complies with international human rights instruments to which Canada is signatory."

While the federal government is stating Mahjoub is an "exceptional case" (but without providing reasons, for those are all secret!), international law states clearly there can NEVER be a return to torture.

September 7 marks a continuation of a detention review which is challenging Mahjoub's indefinite incarceration in a situation one federal court judge has likened to "Canada's Guantanamo Bay." During the course of the week his lawyers, Barbara Jackman and John Norris, will also argue for a stay of deportation.

(It is worth noting at a time when secret trials and the so-called "terror" scares are under increasing scrutiny that as this appeal is sent out, yet another so-called "terror" case has fallen apart in the U.S. Four men who were allegedly part of a high-profile Detroit-area "cell" were the victims of what the U.S. Justice Department admits was its own prosecutorial misconduct and a "pattern of mistakes and oversights" that warrant the dismissal of the convictions.)

Here in Canada, it remains a scary proposition that the uncontested word of spy agency CSIS -- regularly criticized for getting facts wrong, for using feelings instead of facts, for withholding information which runs counter to its theories, and for trading information with known human rights abusers -- is all that's needed to send someone to torture.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Come to Court one any or all of the days next week when court is scheduled.

2. Write to Anne McLellan, urging her to reverse the deportation to torture decision and demanding that Mahjoub's indefinite incarceration without charge be brought to an end. You might want to add that your sentiments apply equally to all of the Secret Trial Five -- Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat and Adil Charkaoui -- who collectively, as of September 1, have been held 159 months in detention without charge, and all of whom face deportation to torture or worse.

Write to McLellan at:

Anne McLellan, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, c/o Solicitor General of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 OR fax 613-990-9077

Please cc tasc@web.ca if you can. Thank you!

3. At this time, a short note of support for Mahjoub would be appreciated as well. If you would like his mailing address, please inform tasc@web.ca and we'll send it on!

Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada
PO Box 73620, 509 St Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON M6C 1C0
(416) 651-5800, www.homesnotbombs.ca

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