Terror suspect Hassan Almrei's desperate bid to stay in Canada was given a new lease on life Thursday when a Toronto judge ordered his deportation order stayed while the courts review his case.

Judge Edmond Blanchard said that Mr. Almrei, who has been held in custody since October, 2001, would suffer irreparable harm if he is deported and misses the chance to appear again in a Canadian court.

Mr. Almrei, 29, admitted taking weapons training to fight the infidel regime in early 1990s Afghanistan but insisted that he was only a devout Muslim, not a fanatic or religious extremist. He said in an affidavit revealed this week that Osama bin Laden was not a big name that I knew of at the time, and I did not support him.

"The Saudi government was encouraging youth to go there, he writes in his affidavit, adding that he avoided armed combat while in Afghanistan. I was issued an AK-47, but I never used it. There were skirmishes ... but I was not involved in them. [And we all believe you, as did the judge. NJC]

He insists his experience with jihad brought him into contact only with anti-Soviet factions, and not with Mr. bin Laden or the fundamentalist Taliban regime. . . . he travelled through central Asia for years before returning to Saudi Arabia. [without proper travel documents? NJC]

He visited Canada in early 1999 and asked at a mosque how best to make a refugee claim. The claim he eventually made, he acknowledges, glossed over his time in Afghanistan. He won status as a refugee but came under CSIS scrutiny when it was discovered that he had used a bogus United Arab Emirates passport.