Federal Court hears appeal for Abdelrazik's return to Canada

The Montreal man who has been stranded in Sudan for six years as an al-Qaeda suspect was able to listen by telephone conference call Thursday as his lawyers appealed to the Federal Court to have him brought home.

Both the RCMP and CSIS have cleared Abousfian Abdelrazik, 46, of any terrorist connections, but the Canadian government refuses to issue him travel documents to return home.

For the last year, he has been living in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.

In court, Abdelrazik's lawyers argued the government has violated his right to mobility under Section 6 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"We find procrastination, evasiveness, obfuscation and general bad faith [on the part of government]," his lawyer, Yavar Hameed, said in his opening remarks.

"The way to remedy that is to effect repatriation," Hameed said.

Abdelrazik's lawyers cited the case of David Van Vlymen as a precedent for allowing their client to come home.

They said a 2004 decision in Federal Court affirmed Van Vlymen's right to be repatriated to Canada even though he had been charged with violent crimes in Ontario and had been sentenced to prison for a bank robbery in the United States.

Abdelrazik's lawyers argued that if that right applied to Van Vlymen — who "was no choirboy" — it should also apply to Abdelrazik, who has never been charged with any crime.

Earlier this week a House of Commons committee passed an NDP motion calling on Abdelrazik to return to Canada to testify.

The government did not initially respond to this procedural twist — but it issued a statement Wednesday making it clear there would be no change in its position.

The statement cites the UN Security Council travel ban, and says Canada takes seriously both its legal obligations to the UN and the need to combat terrorism. "Mr. Abdelrazik is at our Embassy in Sudan and we continue to provide Mr. Abdelrazik with consular assistance," the statement said.

"As this matter is currently under litigation we cannot comment further on the situation."

On Thursday morning the Globe and Mail quoted a UN official who said Canada can repatriate Abdelrazik any time it wishes, whether or not his name is on the UN list.

The country or state in question does not need to ask the UN for permission to lift the travel ban, the Globe was told by Richard Barrett, co-ordinator of the UN's Al-Qaeda and Taliban monitoring team.

In the House of Commons, during question period Thursday, opposition MPs demanded the government return Abdelrazik to Canada.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said Barrett's comments prove there is nothing preventing the government from bringing Abdelrazik back to Canada.

"Bring him back, lay charges and put him on trial," Layton said. "How long will they leave this man on a cot in the Canadian embassy in the Sudan?"

Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae questioned why the government would allow Abdelrazik to live inside its embassy for a year if it believes he is a terrorist.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the case is "highly complex."

"This individual is on a list that is deemed to contain the names of people linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This is a list set up by the UN. We will respect our international commitments," he said.

"The file is the subject of court proceedings, and I will refrain from making any further comments on the matter."