Terror Suspects Ask For Prison Conditions To Be Eased

Melissa Leong and Darryl Konynenbelt , National Post Published: Monday, May 07, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=f5505f2e-dd4e-4488-9c65-28ac61d97b50&k=50154

BRAMPTON, Ont. - Lawyers for several men accused of plotting to bomb target in southern Ontario were in court Monday requesting their clients be released from solitary confinement, a condition one lawyer called "cruel and unusual punishment."

"Prolonged isolation is torture," Edward Sapiano, a Toronto defence lawyer, said in front of the Brampton courthouse. "The Supreme Court of Canada has expressly stated that prolonged isolation is not something that would survive a charter challenge."

The proceedings which are subject to a publication ban, are expected to last two weeks.

The suspects, held since the "Toronto 17" arrests last summer, are held in isolation at Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton; many have been in solitary confinement since then. A court order forbids most of the co-accused from communicating with one another.

Monte Kwinter, Ontario's Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, said Monday he is satisfied the accused are being treated properly.

Outside court, Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal said her husband Qayum Jamal, the eldest of the suspects, spends more than 23 hours a day in a 10-by-12-foot cell with a desk, a toilet and a bed. It leaves him only four feet of room to move, she said.

She is permitted two 20-minute visits with her husband a week, she said. She also said she was able to bring lunch - chicken shawarma, samosas and Coke - for the 11 accused.

They were casually dressed Monday and sat shoulder-to-shoulder inside two glass prisoner boxes. Because the suspects eat together, are transported to Brampton from the federal penitentiary in the same vehicle and are held in the same cell at the court house, their lawyers charge that the non-communication order is fruitless. "With respect to an order that imposes non-communication, the justice system should not be imposing an order that is unenforceable," said Sapiano who represents Yasin Mohamed, charged with smuggling weapons for terrorist purposes.

He said his client has never requested protective custody but the prison authorities do not want the accused to be in the general population. He said he is optimistic their constitutional challenge will be successful. "I anticipate ... I'll be given all that I ask for on behalf of my client that he not be subjected to isolation and be allowed to co-mingle with other human beings."

Seventeen men living in and around Toronto were arrested in a series of raids conducted over two days last June. An 18th man was arrested a month later.

Some have been granted bail. All are charged with belonging to a Canadian terrorist group.