Delay granted in alleged Russian spy case

Court proceedings against a man alleged to be a Russian spy will resume next week in Montreal after a judge granted a delay in the case on Wednesday.

A Federal Court justice heard that the man, known as PaulWilliam Hampel,had trouble making contact with his lawyers followinghis arrest in Montreal last week. The court case will resume next Tuesday.

Stephane Handfield, one of his lawyers, said earlier this week that he would seek a delay in proceedings because he neededmore time to study the evidence against his client.

According to documents filed with the court by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on Monday,the manhas lived in Canada for more than a decade under a false identity.

CSIS has asked the court to deportthe manon grounds he is a danger to national security and used a fraudulent Ontario birth certificate to get three Canadian passports.

The Canadian spy agency said theman is a foreign national who is an agent with Russia's Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, or SVR, the successor spy agency to the KGB of the former Soviet Union.

On Tuesday, Handfieldsaid he received a 100-page summary of evidence against his clientthis weekand was only able to meet him face to face on Sunday.

The man was arrested on Nov. 14 by border security officers at Montreal's Pierre Elliot Trudeau airport.

He was carrying $7,800 in five currencies, several cellphones and a shortwave radio.