OTTAWA — A legal dispute about secret information is delaying the trial of a man accused of taking journalist Amanda Lindhout hostage in Somalia nine years ago.
An Ontario Superior Court judge is slated to rule Tuesday whether the criminal trial will begin Thursday or remain on hold — possibly for months — while the wrangling over classified files play out.
Defence counsel told Justice Robert Smith on Monday that Ali Omar Ader cannot get a fair trial at this point because of side proceedings over how much sensitive information can be admitted.
The Federal Court of Canada ruled last week that several classified records related to the case must remain under wraps — a decision Ader’s lawyers are challenging in the Federal Court of Appeal.
The Crown, meanwhile, is opposing the defence request for a delay in the criminal trial, which was set to begin Monday.
Lindhout and photographer Nigel Brennan were seized by masked gunmen near Mogadishu in August 2008. Both were released on Nov. 25, 2009.
Ader, a 40-year-old Somalian national, faces a criminal charge of hostage-taking for his alleged role as a negotiator. He was arrested by the RCMP in Ottawa in June 2015.
It emerged during pre-trial motions last spring that the Mounties had lured Ader to Canada through an elaborate scheme to sign a purported book-publishing deal.
Behind the scenes, proceedings have played out in Federal Court over prosecution service concerns about sensitive information that, if disclosed during the trial, could harm international relations, security or defence.
In addition to the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the cyberspies at the Communications Security Establishment, Global Affairs Canada and National Defence were involved in the Canadian response to the kidnapping. Each identified information to be shielded from disclosure.
For instance, the information Global Affairs sought to keep confidential related to the federal government’s policy of not paying ransom to terrorists, the identity of third parties that provided information to the department, and Canadian assessments of foreign officials, operations and policies, says the Federal Court ruling handed down last week.
The ruling confirmed that dozens of documents must remain confidential because the competing interests weigh in favour of protecting the information.