Canada's intelligence service is reported to have evidence linking an Egyptian refugee living in Toronto to a militant Islamic network implicated in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Mahmoud Gaballah is named in court documents released on Monday as a member of an Egyptian group known as Al Jihad, one of whose leaders is a close associate of wealthy Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, reported the BBC.Online and Canadian media.
The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) says Gaballah, a Toronto school teacher, is a threat to national security, though the suspect’s lawyer says there's no basis for the allegations, according to CBC News.
Gaballh teaches at a Muslim school in Toronto. He came to Canada in 1996 from Egypt as a refugee claimant.
CSIS describes Al Jihad as a terrorist organization with hundreds of members spread around the world, including Canada. Moreover, it says Gaballah knows them and works with them, and thus is a threat to national security.
David Harris, former security head at CSIS, told CBC that the security service would have to prove Gaballah had direct connections with Al Jihad.
"They'll have to show the kinds of contacts and connections with those involved in political violence abroad. The intimate involvement really is what will satisfy this kind of thing."
That's the sort of evidence Gaballah 's lawyer, Rocco Galati, says CSIS doesn't have.
Gaballah was arrested on similar allegations two years ago. The case was thrown out of courts after the credibility of CSIS agents came under question.
"All they're saying is they have reasonable grounds to believe he is a terrorist, or has associated with known terrorists. And for that you get to go to jail; no bail and you never get to see the evidence on which that opinion is based," said Galati.
Gaballah spent 10 months in jail in 1999 before the charges against him were dropped. Galati says it could easily take another year this time to clear his client's name.
Al Jihad is accused of having played a key role in the embassy attacks, which killed more than 200 people.
The suspect is currently wanted by the Egyptian government for his alleged involvement in terrorism.
If the CSIS's evidence is upheld by a Canadian federal court, he faces deportation to Egypt, said the BBC – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
