Canada: Justice for Abousfian Abdelrazik
Updated: 3 September 2009
Abousfian Abdelrazik
Family photograph
On June 27, 2009, Abousfian Abdelrazik greeted a crowd of media and supporters at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. His return to Canada had been ordered by the Federal Court of Canada on June 4 – a decision the government reluctantly decided to abide by rather than appeal.
Mr Abdelrazik’s journey took six long years. Along the way it has raised troubling questions about the role that Canadian officials have played in his arrest, detention, alleged ill-treatment, and subsequent obstruction of his right to return to Canada.
In March 2003, Abousfian Abdelrazik, a dual Canadian-Sudanese citizen, left his home in Montreal to visit his mother in Khartoum, Sudan. By the end of that year, he had been detained, reportedly tortured, and accused of connections to terrorism. It later emerged that CSIS had requested his detention in Sudan.
After being released and declared “innocent” by the Sudanese authorities, he was nonetheless designated a “terrorist” by the United States and placed on the United Nations 1267 List (often referred to as the UN no-fly list). Cleared by both the RCMP and CSIS in 2007, Mr Abdelrazik still remained stranded in Sudan. The main obstacle to his return home was, surprisingly, the Canadian government. After reneging on many promises of new travel documents, the government then claimed that Mr Abdelrazik had to arrange to have his own name removed from the UN list despite a specific exemption allowing for nationals to return home.
Governments have not only the right, but the responsibility to respond to concerns about terrorism and protect their citizens. However, any government actions must conform with international human rights law including protections against torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention.
Both Mr Abdelrazik and the Canadian public deserve answers about what happened to him and who was responsible.
TAKE ACTION:
Please write polite letters to the Canadian Minsters for Foreign Affairs and Public Safety calling on the Canadian government to ensure full accountability and redress (including an apology and compensation) for Abousfian Abdelrazik.
Further urge the Canadian government to actively assist Mr Abdelrazik in his efforts to have his name removed from the United Nations 1267 List, and lead an initiative to reform this mechanism in keeping with basic tenets of procedural fairness.
WRITE TO:
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6
Canada
(Postage is free from within Canada)
Fax: 613 992 7559
Email: CannoL@parl.gc.ca
Salutation: Dear Minister
The Honourable Peter Van Loan
Minister of Public Safety
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6
Canada
(Postage is free from within Canada)
Fax: 613 992 8351
Email: VanLoP@parl.gc.ca
Salutation: Dear Minister
FURTHER BACKGROUND:
According to documents released as part of ongoing court actions in this case, CSIS requested Abousfian Abdelrazik’s arrest and interrogation in Sudan. During two periods of detention (September 2003 – July 2004 and November 2005 – July 2006), Mr Abdelrazik was primarily held in Kober prison, a facility well known for both harsh conditions and torture & ill-treatment. A section of that prison is under the direct control of the National Intelligence and Security Service.
Although no longer in detention, concerns about Mr Abdelraizik’s safety in Sudan were serious enough for Canadian officials to grant him refuge within the Khartoum embassy in April 2008. Part of the underlying problem, however, was his inability to return home to Canada. Like all citizens, he was entitled to emergency travel documents to return home (his passport expired while he was in detention). But every time Mr Abdelrazik met the government’s terms for granting him emergency travel documents, new conditions were set. Initially this revolved around securing an airline reservation and fully paid ticket. On April 3, 2009 – the day he was set to finally board a plane home – the Canadian government reneged on yet another promise and set the seemingly impossible condition of requiring Mr Abdelrazik to ensure that his name is removed from the UN no-fly list.
Though Canadian officials have repeatedly pointed to the UN no-fly list as an obstacle to Mr Abdelrazik leaving Sudan, the one specific exception allowed is for the listed person to travel to their country of citizenship. Even if removal of his name was necessary, it is unclear how an individual could make such an appeal to the UN Security Council. The government of Canada made a de-listing request in 2007, but was unsuccessful.
After Mr Abdelrazik’s return to Canada, it was further revealed – again through documents released as part of ongoing litigation – that Canadian officials were clearly aware of threats to Mr Abdelrazik’s safety and yet did not change their approach to the case. The following excerpt is from an April 2006 document entitled “CND0025 – Meeting with MFA concerning Potential release and Return of Abousfian Abdelrazik”
“There is clearly a very strong desire on the part of the Sudanese government to deal with this case for once and for all: we judge as significant their verbal reference to a ”permanent” solution to the this case. Despite a series of irritants over the last year, Canada has maintained a constructive working relationship with the Government of Sudan, and we believe that this is an example of the MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] and NSI [National Security & Intelligence Agency] going out of its way (and possibly engendering a degree of political risk) on our behalf to keep military intelligence from taking expedient measures to deal with the case (military intelligence is the most powerful and impenetrable security agency in Sudan, and operates with complete impunity – there is strong evidence that most of Sudan’s ‘disappeared’ did so at the hands of military intelligence).”