Publication Ban Issued As Terror Suspects Back In Court

Lawyers for some of those accused emerged from the halls of justice in the morning claiming their clients are being tortured behind bars.

Lawyer David Kolinsky represents 20-year-old Mississauga resident Zakaria Amara .

"He is being held in a concrete room, approximately 11 feet by 6 feet. A concrete door. There is no window in the room. There is a small slit that is opened when meals are placed in his room. The light is on 24 hours a day and actually as early as 30 years ago, the federal court trial division of Canada had noted and had accepted expert testimony that this type of treatment is known to cause depression and suicide and has held that this type of treatment is, in fact, cruel and unusual punishment, contrary to the Bill of Rights."

But he insists the treatment has gone farther than that - including beatings by a guard.

"My client when he was being searched by a guard, was pinned into the ground. He had the guard's finger drilled into his cheek and the guard flicked him quite hard in the eye .

"He told me on Friday, his thumbs are still numb from plastic restraints placed on his wrists at the time and he has not received proper medical attention in that respect...

"My client advised that as he was being searched, he was touched on the ribs and he is ticklish, and he giggled a bit and the guard held him on the ground and drilled his fingers in the cheek and said, 'is this funny?'"

Rocco Galati, another outspoken defence lawyer, echoes claims of illegal treatment. "Clearly leaving the light on 24 hours a day and waking them up every half hour the last ten days constitutes torture," he alleges.  

He had toyed with asking the jurist to make the trial available to the media via a pool camera so Canadians could see what's actually going on behind closed doors.

"I want the public to know exactly the allegations against my client. I want the public to see the bail hearing. I want the public to assess for itself and have confidence in the administration of justice," he demands.

But the judge wasn't in the mood to have this already charged case be tried in the press. So in the afternoon he issued a publication ban, which the advocates didn't want - but wound up with any way.

Once that prohibition was put into effect, all the lawyers became men of few words.

"There's nothing that I can talk about," one noted ruefully as he left the scene.

Bail hearings have now been scheduled for later in June and July. But the ban means we may not be able to find out what took place when the suspects show up yet again in the slow - and now silent -  march to justice.