Forty-seven year old Abousfian Abdelrazik, from Montreal, Quebec, was arrested and subsequently detained when he was going to meet his mother in Sudan in the year 2003 and since the past one year, he has been living in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.
Forty-seven year old Abousfian Abdelrazik, from Montreal, Quebec, was arrested and subsequently detained when he was going to meet his mother in Sudan in the year 2003 and since the past one year, he has been living in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.
In spite of the fact that Abdelrazik has been cleared of any sorts of terrorist connections by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as well as the RCMP, the Conservatives won’t provide him travel documents to come back to Canada due to the reason that his name has now been added to a UN Security Council list, which does not allow travel for terrorist suspects.
The lawyers of Abdelrazik successfully argued in the court that the current actions are violating the rights of Abdelrazik under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Russell Zinn, Federal Court Judge, finally ordered the government of Canada to arrange for return of Abdelrazik within a period of thirty days. He stated in his ruling that the inclusion of Abdelrazik’s name on the UN blacklist was no obstruction to his repatriation to Canada. Even the officials of the UN have clearly said that Abdelrazik can be repatriated to Canada at any time, irrespective of the fact that he figures on the list.
Zinn stated that Abdelrazik is a prisoner outside Canada and he is a victim of international terrorism to the same extent as innocent people who have lost their lives due to terrorist activities.