OTTAWA - Thirty protesters rallied Friday in support of Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen holed up in the Canadian Embassy in Sudan waiting to receive a passport from the government so that he can rejoin his family in Canada.
Abdelrazik, a Canadian from Montreal, was incarcerated in Sudan in 2003 on suspicion of terrorist activity. He had gone there to visit his sick mother. He was held until July 2006, when he was released without ever being charged - but has not been able to return to Montreal because of the government's refusal to replace his now-expired passport.
There have been allegations that Abdelrazik belonged to al-Qaida and had gone to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, allegations he has always denied.
At the rally at the Human Rights Monument, his lawyer Yavar Hameed deplored the government's inaction in bringing his client home.
"The question we need to ask is, "Why does the government refuse to repatriate Mr. Abdelrazik, who has not been convicted of any crime and has not faced indictment?'"
Hameed contrasted this case with that of Brenda Martin, a Canadian woman who was convicted in Mexico of participating in a fraudulent online investment scheme and was nonetheless repatriated by the Canadian government last May.
The lawyer deplored what he described as "a system of two-tiered citizenship, of institutional racism, of the marginalization of Canadian Muslims."
