After waiting 15 years, Canadian Absoufian Abdelrazik will finally have the chance to hold the federal government accountable for the alleged collusion that led to his imprisonment and torture in Sudan.
On Monday, Abdelrazik, a 62-year-old father of six, expressed relief that his day in court had come.
“It was very difficult. I can’t express it in words…” Abdelrazik said, his voice hoarse as he entered federal court for his trial.
Mr. Abdelrazik was not charged, but was detained in Sudan from 2003 to 2006 and prevented from returning to Canada until 2009, when a federal judge ordered the government to repatriate him.
A Montreal man is suing the Canadian government for $27 million over his wrongful detention overseas. His lawsuit also names former Conservative Foreign Secretary Lawrence Cannon, who refused to issue him with an emergency travel document to bring him home.
Human rights lawyer Paul Champ called Abdelrazik “one of the last remaining victims of the war on terror” by allies such as the United States and Canada, and said his case would break new ground.
“This is a case seeking the largest damages ever for a Canadian citizen. We will argue in court that this is the most serious human rights violation against a Canadian citizen,” Champ told reporters outside court.
Absfian Abdelrazik’s lawyer Paul Champ arrives at the federal courthouse in Ottawa on Monday, October 21, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Champ said his client was the victim of “unlawful detention and torture abroad with the direct or indirect complicity of Canadian government officials.”
In his opening argument, Mr. Champ said there was “misconduct” by Canadian intelligence agencies, including that CSIS was spying on Mr. Abdelrazik in order to “gather information for our friends at the CIA.”
The lawyer did not claim the government wanted Mr. Abdelrazik to be tortured, but said “the government wanted him to never set foot in Canada again.” Champ said Sudanese authorities detained Abdelrazik at Canada’s request and knew they were holding an “innocent man.”
Champ called Abdelrazik a “broken man” upon his return.
Mr Abdelrazik claims his Charter rights to life, liberty and security of person have been violated.
The king made his defense stance clear in a pre-trial memorandum. Canada will argue that it had reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Abdelrazik posed a security threat. The government shared the information with security partners but did not call for the Montreal man’s arrest.
spy testifying
The precedent-setting case will be heard over the next eight weeks.
Those scheduled to testify include two former foreign ministers under Stephen Harper’s government, a senator, a diplomat, a Canadian spy agency agent and an RCMP officer.
Last month, Federal Court Judge Patrick Gleeson rejected the Crown’s motion to have six government witnesses testify behind closed doors “to avoid harm to Canada’s international relations, national defense and national security.”
Justice Gleeson wrote that the Crown had “produced little evidence to establish a possible risk of inadvertent disclosure”.
Witnesses forced to testify in open court include three Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officers who will be questioned behind screens.
Abdelrazik’s case was originally scheduled to go to trial in 2018, but was postponed to consider what evidence might reveal classified information. After five years of analysis, the court ordered the redaction of 1,469 documents in August 2023.
“The government has put up roadblock after roadblock,” Champ said outside court. “Canadian justice system has failed Abdelrazik.”
Abusufian Abdelrazik, center, smiles as he returns to Canada at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Saturday, June 27, 2009, after six years in exile in Sudan. (Nathan Dennett/Canadian Press)
national security concerns
Abdelrazik came to Canada as a refugee in 1990. He said he felt in danger because he participated in anti-government activities in Sudan.
He was in his mid-30s when he settled in Montreal and became a Canadian citizen in 1995.
Court documents show that he first came to the attention of CSIS officials in 1996 due to his association with individuals who threatened national security.
CSIS was concerned about Montreal’s alleged ties to North African Islamic extremists and believed it had ties to al-Qaeda.
Agents also interviewed him on September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on the United States. And in 2002, Abdelrazik was placed on the US no-fly list.
In an agreed statement of facts, the king acknowledged that information about Abdelrazik’s militant associates was passed to the Mounties in 2000. However, after a two-year investigation, no charges were brought.
In March 2003, Abdelrazik returned to Sudan to visit his sick mother and was detained.
Champ said the evidence record overwhelmingly shows that CSIS worked with the CIA to arrange his arrest by Sudanese authorities.
“In fact, Sudanese officials repeatedly told Canadian diplomats that they were only detaining Mr. Abdelrazik at the request of CSIS,” Champ wrote in an earlier email.
Court documents reveal that CSIS officers, including the one who interrogated Abdelrazik in Montreal, traveled overseas for questioning while Abdelrazik was in custody. The interview was conducted in front of three Sudanese officials.
The statement of facts reveals that during his first consular visit to Abdelrazik, Canadian Ambassador David Hutchings was told by Khartoum officials that Abdelrazik was being detained “at Canada’s request.” I’m doing it.
After his release, Abdelrazik lived in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum until a federal court ordered the government to issue him with emergency travel documents and allow him to return home.
The Crown will also argue that it was not aware that Abdelrazik had suffered torture or ill-treatment at the hands of Sudanese authorities and that it made reasonable efforts to have him returned to Canada.
In his opening statement, the king said that events that occurred 20 years ago must be considered in their context.
“After 9/11, CSIS recognized a growing wave of attacks and al-Qaeda added Canada to its list of targets,” said Andrew Gibb, a lawyer for the Canadian government.
Gibbs said Canada has reasonable grounds to suspect that Abdelrazik is a national security threat and that he “brought on his own misfortune.”
Gibbs said Abdelrazik left for Sudan two days after the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, but authorities had warned him not to go.
