Canadian intelligence agencies amassed a vast file on Absoufian Abdelrazik’s ties to terrorism in the early 2000s, but the validity of that information was called into question during the Montreal man’s federal court case.
The court hearing Mr. Abdelrazik’s case against the federal government heard on Tuesday from a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) official who was one of the lead investigators on his file in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Abdelrazik, 62, is suing the federal government for $27 million for complicity in his alleged arbitrary imprisonment and torture, which began in Sudan in 2003. The Sudanese-born Canadian citizen denies involvement in terrorism.
As part of his years-long lawsuit, Abdelrazik alleges the federal government encouraged his detention and actively blocked his extradition to Canada for several years.
He returned to Canada in 2009 after a federal court ruled that Ottawa violated his constitutional rights by refusing to grant him an emergency passport.
The witness, whose identity has been protected and was referred to only as “C,” analyzed intercepted conversations and internet searches in the years before Mr. Abdelrazik’s detention in Sudan was contested.20 Multiple reports from previous years were shown.
The CSIS employee, who testified for the defense (in this case the federal government), said the agency was concerned that Mr. Abdelrazik was sympathetic to Sunni Islamic extremism and wanted to die as a martyr. suggested.
Mr. Abdelrazik’s lawyer, Paul Champ, said in a dissent on Tuesday that some of the statements submitted to “C” were untrue or could not be proven.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Gibbs said the documents were shown because CSIS believed them to be true at the time, “not to prove in detail the veracity of their contents.”
Mr. Abdelrazik’s affiliate CSIS: Witness
According to a partially agreed statement of facts, CSIS first expressed interest in Abdelrazik in 1996 because of his association with a perceived national security threat. .
Over the next few years, the service accumulated files mapping those connections, according to evidence submitted Tuesday.
“C” testified in French and said at the time that CSIS believed Abdelrazik was having a “problematic” conversation.
Documents presented in court showed that CSIS also monitored his internet searches. CSIS documents shown in court show part of the website where Abdelrazik is accused of visiting glorified suicide bombers.
“C” also said in an intercepted conversation that Mr. Abdelrazik said he wanted to be a martyr to his young daughter, further raising CSIS’s concerns.
This witness was one of the CSIS officers who visited and interviewed Abdelrazik in Canada and Sudan.
“C” visited Abdelrazik on September 11, 2001. According to witnesses, Abdelrazik denied involvement in the terrorist attacks in the United States.
Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan in 2003 while on a trip to see his mother, and was interrogated by Sudanese authorities and CSIS officers while in custody about possible links to extremists, the court heard.
CSIS has long denied that it directed Sudan to capture or continue to detain Mr. Abdelrazik.
Lawyers for the federal government rejected suggestions that the Crown breached its duty of care to Abdelrazik or that such breach contributed to his alleged false imprisonment, torture and ill-treatment.
Abdelrazik has never been charged with terrorism. In 2007, the RCMP acquitted Abdelrazik, publicly confirming that there was no “substantive information” indicating that Abdelrazik had engaged in any criminal activity.
“C” continues to testify and is scheduled to be cross-examined on Wednesday.
