Montrealer Abousfian Abdelrazik returned to Canada on Saturday after spending almost six years stuck in Sudan, where authorities accused of him of being an associate of al-Qaeda. The 47-year-old Sudanese-born man, a Canadian citizen since 1995, arrived by plane around 3:30 p.m. ET at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. After spending an hour and a half to clear customs, he met briefly with the waiting throng of media and supporters chanting his name. "I’m very glad to come back home. I’m happy," Abdelrazik said. "I want to say to my supporters from coast to coast, in every town, every city, every village, thank you very much for your supporting me and through your efforts, now I am here," he said. "I’m proud to be a citizen of this famous nation. Thank you very much."
Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan in the spring of 2003, a few months after he had arrived to visit his ailing mother. He claims he was tortured during two stints in custody — one lasting 11 months and the other, nine months. Adding to his problems in jail, his passport expired and he learned he was on the United Nations no-fly list amid allegations he has ties to terrorism. Abdelrazik had been living at the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum. He finally left for the first time in 14 months on Friday afternoon. Later in the day, he boarded a flight that made a stopover in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, before resuming the journey home on Saturday morning, according to internet updates provided by his lawyer and supporters. Paul Champ, one of Abdelrazik's lawyers, said being on the UN no-fly list means more than travel restrictions. "It's not simply a no-fly list. I guess you can call it a UN black list. That means an asset freeze," Champ told CBC News. "When he gets back to Canada, he's going to be subject to all kinds of conditions.
 "He's unlikely to be able to open a bank account. He likely will not be able to have a job, because anyone paying him or giving him money in any way could be regarded as a crime. So he's going to be living with some severe restraints that we're going to be working very hard to lift by whatever means possible," he said. Both the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service have cleared Abdelrazik of any terrorist connections. But the Conservative government had refused to issue him travel documents to return home because his name remained on the UN Security Council's list banning travel for terrorist suspects. On June 4, a judge in Ottawa ordered the federal government to issue travel documents and ensure Abdelrazik is able to return home within 30 days. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced last week that the government would not appeal the Federal Court decision, opening the door for Abdelrazik's return. The Montreal man's lawyers had successfully argued the government violated his right to mobility under Section 6 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. COMING HOME
JUNE 20th , 2009: The Harper government says it will comply with a court order to let a Montreal man return home from Sudan. Mr. Justice Russel Zinn of Federal Court ruled this month that the government breached Abousfian Abdelrazik's constitutional rights by refusing to grant him an emergency passport.Mr. Abdelrazik, a Canadian with family in Montreal, was arrested but not charged during a 2003 visit to Sudan to see his ill mother. He says CSIS and American FBI officers interrogated him over alleged terrorist links. Sudanese authorities released Mr. Abdelrazik – who denies involvement in extremism – and the RCMP says there is no information liking him to criminal activities. But the government refused to give him a passport on the basis that he remains on a United Nations terror watch list, and he has been living in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for several months. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced the news today in the House of Commons. Court orders Ottawa to allow Abdelrazik to return to Canada Thursday, Jun. 04, 2009
Abousfian Abdelrazik is a Sudanese-Canadian dual citizen accused of having ties to al-Qaeda. He is currently resident in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum. He has spent time in prison and was tortured in Sudan. Although he has been placed on a United Nations blacklist of al-Qaeda supporters, no charges or arrest warrants are pending against him from any government, and he has never been convicted of any crime. Nevertheless, because of his inclusion on the blacklist, Canada has refused to grant him travel papers and has otherwise blocked his return to his home in Montreal, even after he managed to find an airline willing to transport him regardless of his listing on the US no-fly list, and despite the fact that the UN blacklist explicitly allows for return to a country of citizenship.
Abdelrazik was born in Sudan in 1962, and trained as a machinist. He was imprisoned for his political views after the 1989 military coup by Omar al-Bashir, fled to Canada as a refugee in 1990, and became a Canadian citizen in 1995. He has an ex-wife and five-year old child living in Montreal, Quebec.
Abdelrazik voluntarily testified via videolink at the trial of Ahmed Ressam, the "millennium bomber". He testified he knew Ahmed Ressam, but had no knowledge of his plans to attack targets in the USA.
Many Canadians have urged government officials to change their policy and allow Abousfian to return home - many have risked arrest and fines to make this happen. We urge all Canadians to become informed on this issue and contact both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon - here is an example of a letter to Mr. Harper: Dear Prime Minister Harper,
It is with dismay that I learn that your government has seen fit to deny an emergency passport to Mr. Abousfian Abdelrazik. Indeed, I have been watching in growing disbelief as Mr. Abdelrazik’s mistreatment by your government has reached ludicrous levels, and I am shocked that any government, much less my own, can treat a fellow citizen so poorly. Mr. Abdelrazik is, as you know, a Canadian citizen who has spent the past six years imprisoned in the Sudan. He went to this country to visit his ailing mother, but was imprisoned by Sudanese officials for unknown reasons and possibly tortured. He is currently living in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, as his attempts to return to his country of citizenship has been thwarted at every turn by your foreign ministry. We have no clear idea why Mr. Abdelrazik was picked up by Sudanese authorities — if he was flagged by intelligence from CSIS or whathaveyou — but the Sudanese government now claims that he has done nothing wrong and their detaining of him was in error. The RCMP and CSIS have both examined Mr. Abdelrazik’s case and have cleared him of all connections with terrorism or indeed any crime. It seems clear enough that he represents no threat to national security, especially given that he has been allowed to reside in the Canadian embassy for the past year. And yet your government will not let him return home. Indeed, his saga over this past year has taken on the appearance of a cruel game.  Claimed that it could provide an emergency passport if Mr. Abdelrazik could find an airline that would fly him home.
Reading this timeline of events, it is hard not to conclude that your government is engaging in an act of sadism towards this Canadian citizen. Even when the government of Sudan offered to fly him home on a government plane, your government refused the offer.  As late as it is, I call upon you to intervene in this case and return this Canadian home to the family that has been waiting for him these past six years. I call upon all Canadians reading this to write to you and to their Member of Parliament to hold this government account for its shameful dereliction of duty. Yours sincerely, James Bow Further Reading
Contact the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon |  Canadians Demand that Government Bring Abdelrazik, Victim of Torture, Home
In the weeks and months leading to his return groups of Canadians from throughout Canada gathered to demand that government officials honor their commitments and respect international law by allowing Abousfian Abdelrazik to return home.
 Canadian stranded in Sudan is refused passport: By Steve Rennie, THE CANADIAN PRESS
A Canadian man remains stranded in Sudan after the federal government refused to grant him travel documents on the grounds he is a national security threat. Abousfian Abdelrazik was set to fly home to Montreal on Friday on a flight paid for by his supporters, after living inside the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for the last year. But two hours before Abdelrazik, 47, was supposed to board his flight, the Justice Department faxed his Ottawa-based lawyer, Yavar Hameed, a terse letter denying him an emergency passport. The department cited a section of the Canada Passport Order that allows the foreign affairs minister to "refuse or revoke a passport if the minister is of the opinion that such action is necessary for the national security of Canada or another country." Foreign Affairs refused to elaborate on the decision, as did the minister, Lawrence Cannon. "As this file unfolds - and it will certainly be unfolding under a judicial cover - I don't want to go any further in terms of my comments on this issue," Cannon told a news conference at the NATO meetings in Strasbourg, France.
 NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, who has been actively working on Abdelrazik's behalf, accused the Conservative government of using the lawsuit as cover. "There is a lawsuit right now that the government hides behind. You know what the lawsuit is about? It's about bringing him home and giving him a travel document," Dewar said. Abdelrazik was arrested in August 2003 on a trip to Khartoum to visit his ailing mother. A recently published report suggests Canadian Security Intelligence Service operatives initially asked Sudanese authorities to arrest and detain him. But investigators found no evidence to support alleged terrorist links and he was released without charge, only to be arrested and jailed a second time in October 2005. Sudanese authorities have since released him. The RCMP and CSIS have acknowledged there is no information linking him to any crime. Abdelrazik has been allowed to live inside the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for the last year, where he sleeps on a cot in the foyer. His passport has expired and Canadian authorities previously told his lawyer that Abdelrazik must pay for a plane ticket before he is issued travel documents. A group of 170 Canadians has since chipped in to buy his ticket and he was set to leave Sudan on Friday. Ottawa had long said it would hand over his travel documents if he had a ticket, but Cannon announced last week Abdelrazik would first have to get his name off a UN no-fly list. "We now have a government that says it's okay ... basically, to go against its word," Dewar said. "The government stated that if a ticket was purchased, they would provide the travel documents. They broke their word." The government would act differently, Dewar charged, were Abdelrazik's last name "Martin" - a reference to Brenda Martin, a Canada woman who spent more than two years in a Mexican jail before a vocal campaign compelled the Harper government to press for her release. Dewar didn't mince words when asked if he was accusing Cannon of racism.  "I mean, he has not given this gentleman, who happens to be a different colour of skin than other citizens who have gotten help from this government, a travel document." A spokeswoman for Cannon wouldn't comment on Dewar's allegation. Meanwhile, protests were scheduled for at least 10 cities across the country Friday. About 20 people protested in front of the Passport Canada offices in downtown Montreal, demanding to speak to an official from the office about Abdelrazik's case. The small-but-noisy protest drew the ire of dozens of people forced to stand in line for their own passports while security kept the doors locked. "We will continue the battle until he is home and we will continue to expose this government for what it has done," said Montreal artist and activist Freda Guttman. "What (the government) has done is contrary to human rights, it's a grievous insult towards this man and all citizens of Canada."
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