Court raps Canadian intelligence agency

OTTAWA, June 27 (UPI) -- The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has been censured by the country's supreme court for its policy of destroying evidence.

In a unanimous ruling, the court ruled in favor of a Montreal school teacher who was considered a terrorism suspect by CSIS, the Toronto Star reported from Ottawa.

At issue was the agency's policy of allowing agents to destroy original notes and tape recordings under the premise its mandate is to collect intelligence and not evidence, the report said.

Adil Charkaoui, 34, was interrogated as an al-Qaida suspect and remains under house arrest but he challenged CSIS on constitutional grounds about recordings and notes that were destroyed, the Canwest News Service reported. He is also fighting deportation proceedings to Morocco, after immigrating in 1995.

"The destruction by CSIS officers of their operational notes compromises the very function of judicial review," the justices wrote. "There is no question that original notes and recordings are the best evidence."