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Friday April 4, 1997

Hezbollah is running network in Canada, security agents say

BILL GLADSTONE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

TORONTO -- The radical Hezbollah Islamic guerrilla group has a network of operatives in Canada, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency.

The agency maintained in a court document subsequently made public that the pro-Iranian fundamentalist movement based in Lebanon had established "an infrastructure" in Canada involving people who "receive and comply with direction from the Hezbollah leadership hierarchy in Lebanon."

The claim was made by the agency in a Federal Court document that provided evidence in a deportation case against Hani Abd Rahim al-Sayegh, who applied for refugee status in August, upon arriving in Canada.

A Saudi national, Sayegh was allegedly involved in the June 25, 1996 terrorist bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 U.S. soldiers and wounded nearly 400 others. Both the United States and Saudi Arabia are seeking his extradition.

He was arrested March 18 in Ottawa.

At a closed-door hearing last week, Justice Donna McGillis ruled that only a summary of the security agency's evidence against Sayegh need be made public, as releasing more would be "injurious to national security or to the safety of persons."

Another Federal Court hearing about the allegations against Sayegh is set for April 28.

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