The Harper government has imposed another condition on Abousfian Abdelrazik – the only Canadian citizen labeled an al-Qaeda operative by Washington – before it will allow him to return home. Abdelrazik must present a fully-paid-for ticket home before “Passport Canada will issue an emergency passport,” the government said in a Dec. 23 letter to his lawyers.
But Abdelrazik, who is living in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, is destitute and the government has warned that it could criminally charge anyone who lends or gives money for a ticket under its sweeping anti-terrorist regulations. “It has intentionally added another roadblock to Abdelrazik’s repatriation,” said Yavar Hameed, the Ottawa lawyer representing Abdelrazik, who has been marooned in Sudan for nearly six years.” That he is now being made to have to purchase the ticket up front is a dishonest tactic employed by the government to keep him in Sudan.”
Canadian consular officers can lend citizens in distress the money to buy a ticket home, but no such offer has been made. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) has already cleared Abdelrazik of suspicion and has requested he be taken off the UN blacklist. The request was blocked by at least one member of the UN Security Council – presumed to be the United States.
