Anna Maria Tremonti, Host of The Current on CBC Radio One.

From The Current, CBC Radio One

Part One: Abdelrazik

We started this segment with some tape from Abousfian Abdelrazik. For the last 11 months, he has been sleeping on a cot in the lobby of the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum. He’s a Canadian, originally from Sudan. And he’s been stranded in Sudan for the last six years … accused at first of supporting Al Qaida and jailed twice. He says he was interrogated by officials from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the F.B.I. He also says he was tortured by Sudanese officials.

Since then, both the RCMP and CSIS have cleared him of any wrong-doing related to terrorism. But he can’t come home because the federal government hasn’t issued him the documents he needs to travel.

Until now, we’ve heard Abousfian Abdelrazik’s story from government officials, lawyers, security experts and human rights activists. But this morning, we wanted to hear it directly from him. Yesterday afternoon, he spoke to Amir Attaran, a lawyer and professor at the University of Ottawa. We aired a clip with what Abousfian Abdelrazik had to say.

Amir Attaran is a lawyer and a professor at the University of Ottawa. He’s familiar with this case and he was in Ottawa.

We did make requests to speak with someone from the federal government about Abousfian Abdelrazik’s case. We were told that Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon is traveling and not available. Deepak Obhrai, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was not available either. And the Prime Minister’s Office did not return our phone call.

. . . Click Here Listen to part one .

Tags: Abousfian Abdelrazik, Amir Attaran, Canadian, CBC Radio One, CSIS, RCMP, Sudan, The Current

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