OTTAWA — Terrorists should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, says the lawyer for terror suspect Momin Khawaja, but not under the "mockery of parliamentary legislation'' that is the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Khawaja, the first Canadian charged under the act, is seeking to have the laws declared unconstitutional on the grounds they're overly broad and vague.

The 27-year-old Ottawa software developer appeared in an Ottawa courthouse Monday -- the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks -- under heavy security. SWAT teams patrolled the courthouse corridors which had been swept for bombs, and visitors to the Superior Court passed through metal detectors.

Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, representing Khawaja, noted the Sept. 11 anniversary in his opening address and said terrorists must be prosecuted.

But he argued that the act rushed through Parliament in 9-11's aftermath is an attack on freedom of expression, of association, of religion and amounts to what Greenspon called a "criminalization of politics.''

"The 9-11 terrorists who have nothing but contempt for these ideals would be only too pleased to hear that everything has changed,'' he told Justice Douglas Rutherford.

Greenspon said Canada has a long history of rushing to restrict rights during times of national stress but asked Rutherford to resist these politically popular measures, which he said usually resulted in belated apologies from the government after the fact.

"I ask the court respectfully not to follow the Canadian pattern,'' said Greenspon.

Khawaja was charged in 2004 with seven counts under the anti-terror act in relation to his alleged role in a British bomb plot. Seven alleged co-conspirators, all Britons, have been on trial for months in London.

Khawaja's trial is not scheduled to begin until January.