Hassan Almrei
Encyclopedia
A Syrian, Hassan Ahmed Almrei ( also childhood name Abu al-Hareth) (born in Syria
on January 1, 1974) arrived in Canada
in 1999 claiming refugee
status. He has been since held, and accused of terrorist connections and ideology, for his "reputation... for obtaining false documents", and his relationship with Ibn al-Khattab
following time shared together during the Civil war in Tajikistan. He had "not supported Khattab financially or otherwise", but "admired Khattab... had pictures of Khattab on his computer; and visited Chechen extremist websites".
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) has also alleged that Almrei has demonstrated a "devotion to Osama bin Laden
and his ideals... by fighting in Afghanistan", although he fought Communist-backed troops and rival forces in Afghanistan
between 1990-1994 while bin Laden was still living in the Sudan. He has argued that it is "gross stereotyping" to suggest that every person who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan must therefore support Osama bin Laden. He believes al-Qaeda
is "contrary to the teachings of Islam", and refers to them as a terrorist organisation which participates in unjustified violence. CSIS claims that his role as a soldier in both Afghanistan and Tajikistan prove that he believes in "guns and violence" nevertheless.
After a special prison was built for the five long-term prisoners held on security certificates, four were released on bail and house arrest
terms, leaving Almrei as the sole occupant of the prison which continued to operate at a cost of $2.6 million annually to house Almrei alone. He was ordered released under house arrest
by a Federal Court judge on January 2, 2009. On December 14, 2009, he was further released and not considered a suspect anymore. The evidence against him was based on informants' tips, wiretaps, and his admission of travel to places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. The case against him was based on outdated and sketchy knowledge of Al Qaeda and other extremist Islamic groups, and loaded with information that "could only be construed as unfavourable to Almrei without any serious attempt to include information to the contrary".
- his father was sentenced to death in absentia
in Syria, as he worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia. He has eight siblings in Saudi Arabia, and one sister who moved to Lebanon with her husband. He memorised the Quran while he was young.
He claims to have been self-employed since February 1990 when he finished high school, though he later stated that he'd spent several months doing office work for the charitable Muslim African Agency following graduation.
He later explained that he had traveled towards Afghanistan, after using his father's contacts in the Muslim Brotherhood
to purchase a forged Syrian passport, to attend a Jalalabad
camp run by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
, a commander in the Northern Alliance
. However, he contracted malaria
and remained in a guest house called Bait al-Ansar in Peshawar
for a year before attending Sayyaf's camp, where'd he trained on an AK-47
with a group named Ittihad-i-Islami. He made three subsequent trips into Afghanistan to stay at the camps under Sayyaf's leadership, using his savings to finance the third trip.
In 1994 left Sayyaf's company and traveled to Kunduz
to follow Ibn al-Khattab
instead, and met Nabil al-Marabh.
Almrei claims he traveled to Pakistan to investigate business possibilities selling honey and perfume. He was in Pakistan from November 1994 through March 1995, and went to Yemen in March 1995. He also claims to have traveled twice in Tajikistan
during the year, where he scouted on Soviet positions for Ibn al-Khattab
, and although he was willing to fight in combat, he claims he served chiefly as an Imam
to the group and was never involved in any major combat, though he saw several skirmishes. When Khattab moved on to fight in the First Chechen War
, he would still phone and fax Almrei with updates on the struggle.
He has stated that he closed his business from as early as 1996 to as late as January 1998, and was unemployed from thence on.
Although New York Times reporter Judith Miller
claimed that he used his honey business to smuggle money for militants, analysts say there is no evidence to support that and Almrei has raised issue with Miller's history of controversy. After her story was published, he claimed that he sold chiefly perfume and oud
, but later stated that he sold primarily honey, importing 500 kg from Pakistan.
He unsuccessfully tried to immigrate to Canada with his Syrian passport #3286630 on April 19, 1998, stating that he wished to visit Hisham Al Taha in Richmond, British Columbia
. He later claimed to have never spoken to al Taha and that he'd just put down his name on the advice of a friend who told him it would improve his chances of being accepted for a visa.
He traveled to Thailand in August 1998, where he met a Palestinian people smuggler
named Ghaled whom he befriended given his own reputation for acquiring false passports.
On January 2, 1999, he flew to Toronto Pearson International Airport
from Jordan. Upon landing he claimed that he had used a forged
passport from the United Arab Emirates
and had destroyed it. He was picked up at the airport by his "good friend" Ahmed Al Kaysee, whom he'd met while in Afghanistan.
In September 1999, Almrei and five other men had been in a restricted portion of Pearson Airport, as they "appeared to have access cards and codes". The explanation has been offered that these six men were working in the airport at temporary jobs, and their credentials were legitimate. He also maintained contact with the Thai smuggler. Attending Jami Mosque
, Almrei met Ibrahim Ishak, who introduced himself as a Bosnian immigration consultant. Almrei later directed two people seeking help acquiring G-class driver's licences to Ishak, who paid him for the referral.
Within months of arriving, he had become close friends with Hassan Ahmed, and would help him with his fruit stand, where he initially had trouble speaking to female customers due to his religious upbringing; but later began to flirt openly with them as his religious stance relaxed. He suggested that he was interested in finding a prospective wife. Ahmed would later register a cell phone for Almrei in his name.
Almrei says he was contacted by al-Marabh, from the Kunduz guesthouse, while the latter was still living in the United States, and was asked to help him acquire a false passport for C$2,000. He says that since al-Marabh introduced himself as "Abu Adnan", he did not immediately recognise that it was him. Almrei used his childhood name, "Abu al-Hareth", during the transaction. The two met at the Toronto copy store owned by al-Marabh's uncle, Ahmed Shehab, where a number of prominent forged identity cards were later found - and Almrei sold him the fake passport. Almrei says he was later asked to find a second passport for him, but refused.
After al-Marabh was arrested trying to illegally enter the United States
hiding in a tractor trailer, Almrei visited him in the Thorold
prison, and collected money from colleagues to loan him C$2,500 for bail. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
investigated Almrei's procurement of the false passport, but opted not to press charges.
He was granted refugee status in June 2000, stating that he feared persecution in Syria due to his father's alleged membership in the Muslim Brotherhood
.
In January 2000, Almrei purchased a Middle Eastern
eatery named Eat-A-Pita for C$22,000. One of his employees who was working "under the table" due to her visa restrictions, asked Almrei if he knew any men who might enter a marriage of convenience
if she offered them C$4,000 to allow her to remain in the country. Knowing that Ishak, whom he'd met a year earlier at the mosque, was in need of money, Almrei informed him of the proposal, and the pair had a civil marriage
at city hall as well as a formal Islamic marriage at the mosque, and Almrei served as a witness to both marriages. Almrei also drafted a fake reference letter from his restaurant to indicate that Ishak was an employee, to help support his case for sponsoring his new wife to become a Canadian. On September 13, 2000, Almrei's residence was searched and the forged passport was discovered. Ishak was stopped in Detroit while flying back to Canada on January 14, 2001 and charged with carrying bundles of fake identification and a crimping machine. Ishak returned to Bosnia, withdrawing his sponsorship of Almrei's former cashier. Feeling personally responsible, Almrei paid her back the C$4,000 Ishak had taken, out of his own pocket in October 2001, when he learned that Ishak was convicted of scamming prospective emigrants in Bosnia.
Friends spoke of Almrei as having poor financial sense, and often had to borrow money. In August 2000, Almrei sold the restaurant for $18,500. He reported becoming depressed and being unemployed for a while, until a friend had to travel overseas due to his father's death, and asked Almrei if he would run his business for several months. He was paid with a used van, and used it to find work making restaurant deliveries throughout the city, earning $800–1000 monthly. His cell phone was cut off due to lapsed payments, and he sometimes drove uninsured because he could not afford the payments.
On October 19, 2001, Almrei was brought to his lawyer's office for a CSIS interview; where he again reiterated his travels and denied having ever been to Sudan, Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Dagestan or Chechnya. He was also confronted with the fact that photographs of Ibn Khattab, Osama bin Laden
and Mohammad Atta were found on his computer, though he protested that agents were taking them out of context and had simply been photos from news agencies such as BBC
which were included in online stories he had read, and were saved in his cache
. He was arrested on a security certificate
nevertheless, and the following month judge Danièle Tremblay-Lamer
found the certificate "reasonable". On November 10, 2002 he retracted part of his statement and said that he had worked as an Imam in Afghanistan but worried that in the wake of the terrorist attacks the truth would be incriminating. He also said that he had been tasked to run a girls' school in Tajikstan by Al Haramin.
While at the Toronto West Detention Centre
, he staged two hunger strikes - a 39-day fast that succeeded in ensuring winter clothing and shoes in his cell during the winter, and a 73-day fast calling for an hour of exercise per day. During the first strike, guards at the prison had offered to slip him some shoes against the rules, but he refused and said he would wait until the court ruled he was legally entitled to them.
In 2003, Almrei, who volunteered as a janitor in the prison, witnessed a prison guard being assaulted by an inmate and intervened, helping to pull the attacker off the officer and then hitting an emergency button to call other guards to assist. Subsequently, he carries a stigma and requested he be allowed to remain in solitary confinement rather than released into the general prison population, as he maintained the guards were his "friends".
In 2005 he mentioned that he'd lost respect for his friend Al Kaysee, who had remained friends up until the day of Almrei's arrest, and since then had not even asked mutual friends how he was faring, muchless visited him in prison. He spent most of his time in prison watching the CPAC Parliamentary channel, and said he did not harbour a grudge against Canada for his treatment since he came from Saudi Arabia and Syria which have even fewer human rights.
In April 2006, he was moved to a new detention facility at Millhaven Institution
, specifically meant to house those held under security certificates.
to accommodate Almrei and offered C$10,000 in cash towards the bail amount. As evidence that Almrei was not an extremist, Ralph pointed out that he had accepted her, a Jewish lesbian
, as a close friend and had told her that only God could judge people.
At Almrei's second application for release, in 2005, he attracted the attention of Alexandre Trudeau
, who offered to post C$5000 after meeting him while filming a documentary
on the security certificate issue. He was again requesting to be released to Ralph and Hanson who volunteered to coach him towards studying at the University of Toronto
. In addition, his close friend Hassan Ahmed offered to post C$3000 in bail. Elizabeth and Francis Barningham put forward C$10,000 as did Frank Lloyd Showler, a retired human rights activist. Imam Ali Hindy offered C$28,000, Matthew Barents offered C$2500, professor Sharon Aiken offered C$1000 and another five people also donated C$100 or less, including Member of Parliament
Alexa McDonough
.
At his third application for release in 2007, Almrei was supported by two new Members of Parliament
who offered to act as sureties and post bail for him, Bill Siksay
(C$10,000) and Andrew Telegdi
(C$500), while McDonough again reiterated symbolic support ($250) and Trudeau again offered C$5000, while Ralph and Hanson increased their bail offer to C$60,000. Erma Wolfe also offered C$3000 and suggested Almrei could live in the basement apartment attached to her house. And Hindy, the local Imam, gathered C$15,000 from the local Muslim community to contribute. On October 5, Justice Lemieux dismissed the application noting that the proposed bail conditions were "wholly inadequate".
In Carolyn Layden-Stevenson
's ruling rejecting the second application, she quoted a confidential CSIS agent named only as P.G. as having testified about Ahmed Khadr dying in 2004, when he actually died in 2003. He also stated that he "was not aware" of any detainees in Guantanamo or elsewhere who had not "take[n] up terrorist activities" once they were released, even though 279 detainees had been released from Guantanamo alone, of whom between 3-30 were alleged to have taken up militant activities upon their release. Another CSIS agent identified only as J.P., the Deputy Chief of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation in the Ottawa Regional Office as of 2005, testified against the petitions for release by Almrei, Jaballah and Charkaoui. J.P. also testified that the Peshawar guest house had been "associated with al-Qaeda
... since 1984", although even the most liberal estimates suggest that the group did not exist until 1988-1990.
Almrei was ordered released under house arrest
by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley
on January 2, 2009, under strict monitoring conditions including an electronic tracking leg-bracelet. This judge was a federal assistant deputy justice minister who helped draft Canada's post 9/11 anti-terror laws before being appointed in 2003.
The court was critical of CSIS and the federal ministers of Public Safety and Immigration, who signed a new certificate in 2008 against Almrei and four others. Mosley said CSIS and the ministers "breached their duties of utmost good faith and candour to the court by not thoroughly reviewing the information in their possession, prior to the issuance of the February 2008 certificate."
Earlier in 2009, another judge threw out a security certificate against Adil Charkaoui
, after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
withdrew secret evidence, fearing its disclosure would jeopardize its sources.
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
on January 1, 1974) arrived in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1999 claiming refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
status. He has been since held, and accused of terrorist connections and ideology, for his "reputation... for obtaining false documents", and his relationship with Ibn al-Khattab
Ibn al-Khattab
Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem , more commonly known as Emir Khattab meaning Commander Khattab, or Leader Khattab, and also known as Habib Abdul Rahman, was a Muslim guerilla fighter and financier working with Chechen Mujahideen in the First Chechen War...
following time shared together during the Civil war in Tajikistan. He had "not supported Khattab financially or otherwise", but "admired Khattab... had pictures of Khattab on his computer; and visited Chechen extremist websites".
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...
(CSIS) has also alleged that Almrei has demonstrated a "devotion to Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and his ideals... by fighting in Afghanistan", although he fought Communist-backed troops and rival forces in Afghanistan
History of Afghanistan since 1992
This article on the History of Afghanistan since 1992 covers the time period from the fall of the Najibullah government in 1992 to the ongoing American military presence in Afghanistan.-End of Najibullah government:...
between 1990-1994 while bin Laden was still living in the Sudan. He has argued that it is "gross stereotyping" to suggest that every person who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan must therefore support Osama bin Laden. He believes al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
is "contrary to the teachings of Islam", and refers to them as a terrorist organisation which participates in unjustified violence. CSIS claims that his role as a soldier in both Afghanistan and Tajikistan prove that he believes in "guns and violence" nevertheless.
After a special prison was built for the five long-term prisoners held on security certificates, four were released on bail and house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
terms, leaving Almrei as the sole occupant of the prison which continued to operate at a cost of $2.6 million annually to house Almrei alone. He was ordered released under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
by a Federal Court judge on January 2, 2009. On December 14, 2009, he was further released and not considered a suspect anymore. The evidence against him was based on informants' tips, wiretaps, and his admission of travel to places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. The case against him was based on outdated and sketchy knowledge of Al Qaeda and other extremist Islamic groups, and loaded with information that "could only be construed as unfavourable to Almrei without any serious attempt to include information to the contrary".
Life
Although born in Syria, Almrei's family moved to Dammam, Saudi Arabia when he was 7 since his paternal uncle had been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for his role in the Muslim BrotherhoodMuslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
- his father was sentenced to death in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
in Syria, as he worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia. He has eight siblings in Saudi Arabia, and one sister who moved to Lebanon with her husband. He memorised the Quran while he was young.
He claims to have been self-employed since February 1990 when he finished high school, though he later stated that he'd spent several months doing office work for the charitable Muslim African Agency following graduation.
He later explained that he had traveled towards Afghanistan, after using his father's contacts in the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
to purchase a forged Syrian passport, to attend a Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...
camp run by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf is an Afghan Islamist politician. He took part in the war against the PDPA government in the 1980s, leading the Mujahedin faction Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan....
, a commander in the Northern Alliance
United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan
The United Islamic Front , known in the West and Pakistan as the Northern Alliance, was a military-political umbrella organization created by the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996 under the leadership of Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud...
. However, he contracted malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and remained in a guest house called Bait al-Ansar in Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
for a year before attending Sayyaf's camp, where'd he trained on an AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
with a group named Ittihad-i-Islami. He made three subsequent trips into Afghanistan to stay at the camps under Sayyaf's leadership, using his savings to finance the third trip.
In 1994 left Sayyaf's company and traveled to Kunduz
Kunduz
Kunduz also known as Kundûz, Qonduz, Qondûz, Konduz, Kondûz, Kondoz, or Qhunduz is a city in northern Afghanistan, the capital of Kunduz Province. It is linked by highways with Mazari Sharif to the west, Kabul to the south and Tajikistan's border to the north...
to follow Ibn al-Khattab
Ibn al-Khattab
Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem , more commonly known as Emir Khattab meaning Commander Khattab, or Leader Khattab, and also known as Habib Abdul Rahman, was a Muslim guerilla fighter and financier working with Chechen Mujahideen in the First Chechen War...
instead, and met Nabil al-Marabh.
Almrei claims he traveled to Pakistan to investigate business possibilities selling honey and perfume. He was in Pakistan from November 1994 through March 1995, and went to Yemen in March 1995. He also claims to have traveled twice in Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
during the year, where he scouted on Soviet positions for Ibn al-Khattab
Ibn al-Khattab
Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem , more commonly known as Emir Khattab meaning Commander Khattab, or Leader Khattab, and also known as Habib Abdul Rahman, was a Muslim guerilla fighter and financier working with Chechen Mujahideen in the First Chechen War...
, and although he was willing to fight in combat, he claims he served chiefly as an Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
to the group and was never involved in any major combat, though he saw several skirmishes. When Khattab moved on to fight in the First Chechen War
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
, he would still phone and fax Almrei with updates on the struggle.
He has stated that he closed his business from as early as 1996 to as late as January 1998, and was unemployed from thence on.
Although New York Times reporter Judith Miller
Judith Miller (journalist)
Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy...
claimed that he used his honey business to smuggle money for militants, analysts say there is no evidence to support that and Almrei has raised issue with Miller's history of controversy. After her story was published, he claimed that he sold chiefly perfume and oud
Oud
The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...
, but later stated that he sold primarily honey, importing 500 kg from Pakistan.
He unsuccessfully tried to immigrate to Canada with his Syrian passport #3286630 on April 19, 1998, stating that he wished to visit Hisham Al Taha in Richmond, British Columbia
Richmond, British Columbia
Richmond is a coastal city, incorporated in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Part of Metro Vancouver, its neighbouring communities are Vancouver and Burnaby to the north, New Westminster to the east, and Delta to the south, while the Strait of Georgia forms its western border...
. He later claimed to have never spoken to al Taha and that he'd just put down his name on the advice of a friend who told him it would improve his chances of being accepted for a visa.
He traveled to Thailand in August 1998, where he met a Palestinian people smuggler
People smuggling
People smuggling is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents"...
named Ghaled whom he befriended given his own reputation for acquiring false passports.
In Canada
Toronto Pearson International Airport
Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international airport serving Toronto, Ontario, Canada; its metropolitan area; and the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration that is home to 8.1 million people – approximately 25% of Canada's population...
from Jordan. Upon landing he claimed that he had used a forged
Forged
Forged is a book written by biblical scholar, Bart D. Ehrman which attempts to analyze the historical accuracy of the Christian Bible. The book posits that 11 or more books out of the 27 books of the Christian New Testament canon were written as certain types of forgeries related to the politics...
passport from the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
and had destroyed it. He was picked up at the airport by his "good friend" Ahmed Al Kaysee, whom he'd met while in Afghanistan.
In September 1999, Almrei and five other men had been in a restricted portion of Pearson Airport, as they "appeared to have access cards and codes". The explanation has been offered that these six men were working in the airport at temporary jobs, and their credentials were legitimate. He also maintained contact with the Thai smuggler. Attending Jami Mosque
Jami Mosque
Located just east of High Park in Toronto, Jami Mosque is the oldest Canadian Islamic centre in the city and dubbed "the mother of all the mosques in Toronto"....
, Almrei met Ibrahim Ishak, who introduced himself as a Bosnian immigration consultant. Almrei later directed two people seeking help acquiring G-class driver's licences to Ishak, who paid him for the referral.
Within months of arriving, he had become close friends with Hassan Ahmed, and would help him with his fruit stand, where he initially had trouble speaking to female customers due to his religious upbringing; but later began to flirt openly with them as his religious stance relaxed. He suggested that he was interested in finding a prospective wife. Ahmed would later register a cell phone for Almrei in his name.
Almrei says he was contacted by al-Marabh, from the Kunduz guesthouse, while the latter was still living in the United States, and was asked to help him acquire a false passport for C$2,000. He says that since al-Marabh introduced himself as "Abu Adnan", he did not immediately recognise that it was him. Almrei used his childhood name, "Abu al-Hareth", during the transaction. The two met at the Toronto copy store owned by al-Marabh's uncle, Ahmed Shehab, where a number of prominent forged identity cards were later found - and Almrei sold him the fake passport. Almrei says he was later asked to find a second passport for him, but refused.
After al-Marabh was arrested trying to illegally enter the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hiding in a tractor trailer, Almrei visited him in the Thorold
Thorold, Ontario
Thorold is a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. It is also the seat of the Regional Municipality of Niagara....
prison, and collected money from colleagues to loan him C$2,500 for bail. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
investigated Almrei's procurement of the false passport, but opted not to press charges.
He was granted refugee status in June 2000, stating that he feared persecution in Syria due to his father's alleged membership in the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
.
Middle Eastern cuisine
Middle-Eastern cuisine, West Asian cuisine, or in some place in the United States, Persian-Mediterranean cuisine is the cuisine of the various countries and peoples of the Middle East . The cuisine of the region is diverse while having a degree of homogeneity...
eatery named Eat-A-Pita for C$22,000. One of his employees who was working "under the table" due to her visa restrictions, asked Almrei if he knew any men who might enter a marriage of convenience
Marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than the reasons of relationship, family, or love. Instead, such a marriage is orchestrated for personal gain or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as political marriage. The phrase is a calque of - a marriage of...
if she offered them C$4,000 to allow her to remain in the country. Knowing that Ishak, whom he'd met a year earlier at the mosque, was in need of money, Almrei informed him of the proposal, and the pair had a civil marriage
Civil marriage
Civil marriage is marriage performed by a government official and not a religious organization.-History:Every country maintaining a population registry of its residents keeps track of marital status, and most countries believe that it is their responsibility to register married couples. Most...
at city hall as well as a formal Islamic marriage at the mosque, and Almrei served as a witness to both marriages. Almrei also drafted a fake reference letter from his restaurant to indicate that Ishak was an employee, to help support his case for sponsoring his new wife to become a Canadian. On September 13, 2000, Almrei's residence was searched and the forged passport was discovered. Ishak was stopped in Detroit while flying back to Canada on January 14, 2001 and charged with carrying bundles of fake identification and a crimping machine. Ishak returned to Bosnia, withdrawing his sponsorship of Almrei's former cashier. Feeling personally responsible, Almrei paid her back the C$4,000 Ishak had taken, out of his own pocket in October 2001, when he learned that Ishak was convicted of scamming prospective emigrants in Bosnia.
Friends spoke of Almrei as having poor financial sense, and often had to borrow money. In August 2000, Almrei sold the restaurant for $18,500. He reported becoming depressed and being unemployed for a while, until a friend had to travel overseas due to his father's death, and asked Almrei if he would run his business for several months. He was paid with a used van, and used it to find work making restaurant deliveries throughout the city, earning $800–1000 monthly. His cell phone was cut off due to lapsed payments, and he sometimes drove uninsured because he could not afford the payments.
Arrest
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and Mohammad Atta were found on his computer, though he protested that agents were taking them out of context and had simply been photos from news agencies such as BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
which were included in online stories he had read, and were saved in his cache
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
. He was arrested on a security certificate
Security certificate
In Canadian law, a security certificate is a mechanism by which the Government of Canada can detain and deport foreign nationals and all other non-citizens living in Canada...
nevertheless, and the following month judge Danièle Tremblay-Lamer
Danièle Tremblay-Lamer
Danièle Tremblay-Lamer is a judge currently serving on the Federal Court of Canada.-References:...
found the certificate "reasonable". On November 10, 2002 he retracted part of his statement and said that he had worked as an Imam in Afghanistan but worried that in the wake of the terrorist attacks the truth would be incriminating. He also said that he had been tasked to run a girls' school in Tajikstan by Al Haramin.
While at the Toronto West Detention Centre
Toronto West Detention Centre
The Toronto West Detention Centre, often referred to as simply The West, is a maximum security remand facility located in Rexdale, a community located in the north-west corner of Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
, he staged two hunger strikes - a 39-day fast that succeeded in ensuring winter clothing and shoes in his cell during the winter, and a 73-day fast calling for an hour of exercise per day. During the first strike, guards at the prison had offered to slip him some shoes against the rules, but he refused and said he would wait until the court ruled he was legally entitled to them.
In 2003, Almrei, who volunteered as a janitor in the prison, witnessed a prison guard being assaulted by an inmate and intervened, helping to pull the attacker off the officer and then hitting an emergency button to call other guards to assist. Subsequently, he carries a stigma and requested he be allowed to remain in solitary confinement rather than released into the general prison population, as he maintained the guards were his "friends".
In 2005 he mentioned that he'd lost respect for his friend Al Kaysee, who had remained friends up until the day of Almrei's arrest, and since then had not even asked mutual friends how he was faring, muchless visited him in prison. He spent most of his time in prison watching the CPAC Parliamentary channel, and said he did not harbour a grudge against Canada for his treatment since he came from Saudi Arabia and Syria which have even fewer human rights.
In April 2006, he was moved to a new detention facility at Millhaven Institution
Millhaven Institution
Millhaven Institution is a maximum security prison located in Bath, Ontario. Approximately 400 inmates are incarcerated at Millhaven. Opened in 1971, Millhaven was originally built to replace the area's other maximum security prison . A riot at Kingston Penitentiary forced Millhaven to open...
, specifically meant to house those held under security certificates.
Applications for release
At his first application for bail release, in June 2003, it was proposed that Almrei, who has no family in Canada, could live with Dr. Diana Ralph and her partner Jean Hanson, who spent C$38,000 renovating their basement apartmentBasement apartment
A basement apartment is an apartment located below street level, underneath another structure—usually an apartment building, but possibly a house or a business. Rent in basement apartments is usually much lower than it is in above-ground units, due to a number of deficiencies common to basement...
to accommodate Almrei and offered C$10,000 in cash towards the bail amount. As evidence that Almrei was not an extremist, Ralph pointed out that he had accepted her, a Jewish lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, as a close friend and had told her that only God could judge people.
At Almrei's second application for release, in 2005, he attracted the attention of Alexandre Trudeau
Alexandre Trudeau
Alexandre "Sacha" Trudeau is a Canadian filmmaker and journalist, and second son of Canada's former Prime Minister, the late Pierre Trudeau, and Margaret Trudeau.-Early life and education:...
, who offered to post C$5000 after meeting him while filming a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
on the security certificate issue. He was again requesting to be released to Ralph and Hanson who volunteered to coach him towards studying at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. In addition, his close friend Hassan Ahmed offered to post C$3000 in bail. Elizabeth and Francis Barningham put forward C$10,000 as did Frank Lloyd Showler, a retired human rights activist. Imam Ali Hindy offered C$28,000, Matthew Barents offered C$2500, professor Sharon Aiken offered C$1000 and another five people also donated C$100 or less, including Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Alexa McDonough
Alexa McDonough
Alexa Ann Shaw McDonough OC is a Canadian politician who became the first woman to lead a major, recognized political party in Canada, when she was elected the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party's leader in 1980...
.
At his third application for release in 2007, Almrei was supported by two new Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
who offered to act as sureties and post bail for him, Bill Siksay
Bill Siksay
William Livingstone Siksay, former MP is a Canadian politician, and was the Member of Parliament who represented the British Columbia riding of Burnaby—Douglas for the New Democratic Party from 2004 to 2011.Receiving his high school diploma from McLaughlin Collegiate and Vocational Institute in...
(C$10,000) and Andrew Telegdi
Andrew Telegdi
Andrew Telegdi, PC is a Canadian politician. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2008, representing Waterloo and the successor riding of Kitchener—Waterloo....
(C$500), while McDonough again reiterated symbolic support ($250) and Trudeau again offered C$5000, while Ralph and Hanson increased their bail offer to C$60,000. Erma Wolfe also offered C$3000 and suggested Almrei could live in the basement apartment attached to her house. And Hindy, the local Imam, gathered C$15,000 from the local Muslim community to contribute. On October 5, Justice Lemieux dismissed the application noting that the proposed bail conditions were "wholly inadequate".
In Carolyn Layden-Stevenson
Carolyn Layden-Stevenson
A "high profile" Federal judge of Canada, Carolyn Layden-Stevenson has ruled on a number of cases and motions involving suspects accused of links to militant and terrorist organisations.-Life:...
's ruling rejecting the second application, she quoted a confidential CSIS agent named only as P.G. as having testified about Ahmed Khadr dying in 2004, when he actually died in 2003. He also stated that he "was not aware" of any detainees in Guantanamo or elsewhere who had not "take[n] up terrorist activities" once they were released, even though 279 detainees had been released from Guantanamo alone, of whom between 3-30 were alleged to have taken up militant activities upon their release. Another CSIS agent identified only as J.P., the Deputy Chief of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation in the Ottawa Regional Office as of 2005, testified against the petitions for release by Almrei, Jaballah and Charkaoui. J.P. also testified that the Peshawar guest house had been "associated with al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
... since 1984", although even the most liberal estimates suggest that the group did not exist until 1988-1990.
Almrei was ordered released under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley
Richard Mosley
A Canadian Federal Court trial judge, Richard Mosley has a background in National security interests, and has taken a role in hearing a number of Canadian anti-terrorism cases, including those relating to Abdullah and Omar Khadr, as well as Hassan Almrei. He has also taken a role in hearing the...
on January 2, 2009, under strict monitoring conditions including an electronic tracking leg-bracelet. This judge was a federal assistant deputy justice minister who helped draft Canada's post 9/11 anti-terror laws before being appointed in 2003.
Release
On December 14, 2009, more than eight years after his arrest, the same judge who ordered his house arrest disposed the security certificate against him. The judge concluded that the evidence – both secret and public – against him did not hold up to scrutiny. While there were "reasonable grounds to believe that Hassan Almrei was a danger to the security of Canada when he was detained in 2001" he concluded that "there are no longer reasonable grounds to believe that he is a security risk today". In a comment this was paraphrased: what was reasonable in 2001 because much was unknown, was not reasonable anymore in 2009,The court was critical of CSIS and the federal ministers of Public Safety and Immigration, who signed a new certificate in 2008 against Almrei and four others. Mosley said CSIS and the ministers "breached their duties of utmost good faith and candour to the court by not thoroughly reviewing the information in their possession, prior to the issuance of the February 2008 certificate."
Earlier in 2009, another judge threw out a security certificate against Adil Charkaoui
Adil Charkaoui
Adil Charkaoui is a Morocco-born permanent resident of Canada who was arrested by the Canadian government under a security certificate in May 2003....
, after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...
withdrew secret evidence, fearing its disclosure would jeopardize its sources.