OTTAWA: The Supreme Court of Canada has concluded that refugees may be deported to their home countries, even if they face torture upon return, if they are deemed to pose a serious risk to Canadian security.

The decision was handed down on Friday in the form of rulings in two separate but related cases, one involving a Sri Lankan refugee and the other, an Iranian. The court declined to define the term “serious risk”. Manickavasagam Suresh, accused of raising funds for what authorities termed terrorists in Sri Lanka, sought to avoid deportation on the grounds that he would be tortured by the government in Colombo is Canada forced him to return.

Suresh is an executive member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is fighting for a Tamil homeland on the island, where the majority population is Sinhalese.

Mansour Ahani, suspected of being a trained Iranian government assassin, can be deported to Iran, the court ruled in a separate 9-0 judgment. Ahani had a greater opportunity to present his case to the immigration minister and offered less evidence that he faced torture, the court noted. Canadian authorities said that they were not persuaded by Ahani’s argument that his safety was jeopardised because he had cooperated with Canadian security agents.

Suresh’s lawyers argued that torture of Tamil supporters by the Sri Lankan government is well established. They said deportation would violate his Charter rights to free association and security of the person.

Lawyers for Suresh and Ahani argued before the high court in May that deportation can never be justified when torture is a threat. They also questioned whether security risk assessments are too heavily weighted against defendants.

The Canadian Council of Refugees had urged the Supreme Court to send a clear message that human rights will not be sacrificed in the international campaign against terrorism. “I think it’s more important than ever that after September 11, the Supreme Court of Canada say that torture is something Canada will never be complicit in,” said the group’s lawyer, Jack Martin. —Dawn/InterPress Service.