| Submit your comments on this article |
| Great White North |
| Terror suspect sues Canada over torture in Sudan |
| 2009-09-25 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A Canadian-Sudanese man once stranded in Khartoum for six years over his suspected links to al-Qaeda is suing Canada for its alleged role in his arrest and torture, court documents say. Abousfian Abdelrazik, 47, had found himself on a United Nations no-fly list after traveling to Sudan in March 2003 to visit his ailing mother. He says he was twice detained in Sudan and tortured. Following his release, he holed up at the Canadian embassy in Sudan for more than a year, fearing arrest by local authorities. He was eventually repatriated to Canada in June after a federal court ruled in his favor and ordered Ottawa to provide him with travel documents as well as arrange to fly him from Khartoum to Montreal to be reunited with his family. Abdelrazik's suit filed Wednesday seeks 24 million Canadian dollars (22 million U.S.) from Ottawa alleging the government's involvement in his detention and torture, and three million dollars (2.76 million U.S.) from Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon for "misfeasance in public office." It claims the foreign minister "deliberately and flagrantly violated (Abdelrazik's) constitutional right to enter Canada, and his legal right to procedural fairness and natural justice, by refusing to issue an emergency passport." Abdelrazik's lawyer Paul Champ told AFP: "Canadian officials (had) directly asked a foreign government -- and that's a foreign government with a record of torture -- to detain a Canadian citizen." "He was snatched by the Sudanese secret police and his family didn't know where he was and formally the Canadian government was telling his family they didn't know where he was. "At same time, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents were in Khartoum interrogating him in Sudanese custody," he said. "That's pretty disgusting." |
| Posted by:Fred |