Lawyers for Ottawa terrorism suspect Mohamed Harkat want evidence given by a discredited Canadian Security Intelligence Service source to be ruled inadmissable.
The source failed a lie-detector test in 2002, a fact that was kept from Judge Simon Noël until earlier this year. Noël has been hearing evidence in the secret trial, whose public phase is now expected to be delayed until early next year.
The public phase was to be heard in Federal Court during the summer, but those dates were abandoned after Canada’s security agency revealed it had failed to disclose key evidence.
The government accuses Harkat of being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent and has been trying to deport him to his native Algeria since he was first arrested on a security certificate almost seven years ago.
Harkat, 41, denies the allegation.
The public hearing gives Harkat — now under strict house arrest — his only opportunity to call evidence in his own defence.
The court is to consider the application by Harkat’s lawyers later this month.
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