Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004

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Holocaust denier Zündel's bid for freedom denied

CANADIAN PRESS

HOLOCAUST denier Ernst Zündel must remain behind bars until a judge decides whether he poses a legitimate threat to national security, a court ruled today.

Zündel was jailed in February after being deported to Canada for overstaying a visitor's visa in the United States.

"The judge has decided he will stay in custody," said lawyer Peter Lindsay.

"He'll stay in solitary confinement at the Metro West Detention Centre, without having a criminal record in Canada, without facing any criminal charges in Canada, as he has been since Feb. 19, 2003."

Zündel is being held on a security certificate while the courts determine whether it is reasonable to deem the 64-year-old man a security risk to Canada and to deport him to Germany.

"I have come to the conclusion, based on the information presented to me in camera, that Mr. Zündel does represent a danger to the security of Canada and should remain in detention for the time being," Federal Court Justice Pierre Blais said in a written decision.

"I am constrained by the reality of national security reasons which impede giving full expression to the grounds for continuing the detention."

The hearing to evaluate the validity of the security certificate was to continue tomorrow, but Lindsay said he was planning to ask Blais for an adjournment.

Lindsay said he'll appeal an earlier Superior Court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of Zündel's detention as well as the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the law under which he's being detained.

It's patently unfair to deny Zündel any information about the "secret evidence" that Ottawa and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service are using to justify their efforts to deport him, he said.

"It's a lot like trying to grab smoke," Lindsay said. "I'm in the dark totally."

Shortly after he was jailed last year upon his arrival in Canada, Zündel applied for refugee status. He was denied three times before Ottawa suspended the application one day after the security certificate was issued.

Zündel, who has lived in Canada since 1958, fled to Tennessee to be with his wife prior to a January 2002 ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Commission that a website he controlled spread anti-Semitic messages.

CTV: "Zündel, who has no criminal record in Canada and is not facing any charges, has been in solitary confinement since February."

Canada offered to set Zündel free to travel to the country of his choice if he would plead guilty to being a national security threat

Zündel seeks asylum after U.S. deportation: Now 'he's our problem'

Zündel seeking refugee status

Ernst Zündel held in Batavia, N.Y., detention center

Wife fears key could soon be thrown away

Zündel headed back to Canada

Arrest of Ernst Zündel by US: Is held in Jail

Reknowned Neo-Nazi activist held in Blount County jail

Feb 2001: Ernst Zuendel has emigrated from Canada to the United States

 

Website dossier: The origins of anti-Semitism