TORONTO - Every year a number of Canadians and permanent residents find themselves behind bars in foreign countries - 2016 was no exception. Some cases have been called unjust, others are in the process of being prosecuted and in a handful of cases, some detained Canadians were released and allowed to return home. Here are snapshots of some key cases that made headlines this year.
- Canadian citizens and permanent residents currently detained in cases their supporters have called unjust.
NEIL BANTLEMAN: The Canadian teacher convicted in Indonesia on child abuse charges marked the second anniversary of his detention in July 2016. Bantleman has maintained his innocence ever since he was accused of abusing three children at an international school in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. He was first convicted and handed a 10 year prison sentence in April 2015 and then freed in August 2015 after an appeal. In February this year, however, Indonesia's Supreme Court overturned his acquittal and Bantleman was put back behind bars with an 11-year sentence. His lawyers are now preparing an application for a judicial review of the matter. A panel appointed by Indonesia's Supreme Court will look at those arguments.
TAHMID HASIB KHAN: The University of Toronto student, who is a permanent resident of Canada, was detained in Bangladesh after a deadly July terror attack in the country. Khan was taken into custody after surviving a raid on an upscale restaurant in which 20 hostages were killed. In October, a judge cleared the 22-year-old of any involvement in the attack. While the development was a relief to his family, Khan still faces a charge of not co-operating with police. He was released on bail on that charge and remains in the country while his case works its way through the courts. If convicted on that count, he could face a month of jail time and a cash fine. Khan had arrived in Dhaka on July 1 to celebrate Eid with his family.
HYEON SOO LIM: The Mississauga, Ont., pastor was sentenced last December by a North Korean court to life in prison with hard labour for what it called crimes against the state. Lim, who is in his 60s, has been held since February 2015. He was convicted by Pyongyang's Supreme Court for allegedly trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system and helping U.S. and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens. Lim's relatives have said the pastor travelled in January 2015 on a regular humanitarian mission to North Korea. They said Lim has made more than 100 trips to that country since 1997 to help local residents. Lim started the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Mississauga nearly three decades ago, shortly after he immigrated from South Korea.
DAVUD HANCI AND ILHAN ERDEM: Hanci, a Turkish-Canadian imam from Calgary, was arrested in Turkey in July shortly after a failed coup in the country. Ilhan Erdem, another Turkish Canadian, was also arrested at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport following the attempted coup. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion has said he has raised both cases with his Turkish counterpart. Hanci's wife has said her husband has had limited access to his lawyer and the family is very worried about his well-being. She said her husband and two young sons were in Turkey during the summer visiting the imam's ailing father. She has also said her husband has nothing to do with the coup attempt. Turkish news reports have accused Hanci of having ties to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric whom the Turkish government accuses of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt.
RAIF BADAWI: The Saudi blogger was arrested in 2012 and is currently serving a sentence of two years in jail, 1,000 lashes and a large fine following a 2014 conviction of his criticism of Saudi clerics. The first 50 lashes in his sentence were administered in January 2015. The second round has been postponed multiple times. Badawi is not a Canadian citizen but his wife Ensaf Haidar and their three children live in Sherbrooke, Que. Badawi's imprisonment has drawn widespread condemnation in Canada and abroad. Ottawa has sought clemency for Badawi and pressed Saudi officials about the case, but is stymied because he isn't a Canadian citizen. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion has said Canada has offered to take Badawi in.
- Canadians being prosecuted abroad this year
BLAKE LEIBEL: Leibel, who lives in California, was charged with murder this summer in the alleged torture and death of a girlfriend who had just given birth to their child. Police discovered the bloodless body of Iana Kasian after breaking through a barricade to get into the couple's apartment, according to prosecutors. Leibel, 35, is the son of Lorne Leibel, a sailor on Canada's 1976 Olympics team who built a fortune constructing homes in the Toronto area. The charges against Blake Leibel allege he used a knife to torture, maim and murder Kasian sometime between May 23 and May 26. Leibel faces a total of four charges: murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them. His lawyer has said his criminal case is currently on hold pending the determination of his competency to stand trial.
ISABELLE LAGACE, MELINA ROBERGE AND ANDRE TAMINE: The three Canadians were charged in Australia with drug smuggling after a cruise ship they were on, the MS Sea Princess, docked in Sydney. Australian Border Force officials have said detection dogs helped police allegedly find 95 kilograms of cocaine in their suitcases. Authorities allege that 35 kilograms of cocaine were found in suitcases in a cabin the women shared and 60 kilograms were discovered in the man's luggage in a separate cabin. The case made global headlines after vacation selfies of the two women posing at cruise stops surfaced online. Lagace, 28, Roberge, 23 and Tamine, 64 face potential life sentences if convicted.
DAVID JAMES ROACH: The Canadian man has been accused of robbing a bank in Singapore before travelling to Thailand. Roach was arrested in the Thai capital in July. Local media reports have said Roach allegedly walked into a bank in Singapore and handed over a note saying he was armed and wanted money. The robbery, in which Roach allegedly left with nearly $29,000, was considered a rarity in Singapore, which has a low crime rate. The media reports said Roach allegedly flew to Bangkok shortly after the robbery and was tracked down and detained by police at his hostel.
KARL AND SORINA MORRISON: The Ontario couple is accused of importing fentanyl products from China into the United States and then mailing the powerful opioid drugs to Canada. The Morrisons, who are both 59, were arrested at a border crossing near Niagara Falls, N.Y., in October after an investigation by U.S. authorities. The couple has been charged with conspiracy to import and export controlled substances and analogues, and attempt to export controlled substances and analogues. The pair has pleaded not guilty. In a criminal complaint filed with a New York court, a Homeland Security agent says a package mailed from China to Karl Morrison at a mailbox in a UPS store in Niagara Falls contained four packets, two of which were found to contain types of fentanyl.
JASON MOORE: The Canadian soldier who served in Afghanistan was charged in the United Kingdom over allegations the military said go against “the ethics and the values” of the Canadian Armed Forces. A statement from the military did not elaborate on the charges against Moore but British media reported that Moore pleaded guilty in August to six charges including counts of making indecent photographs of children. The Canadian military statement said that until his arrest, Moore was a member of the military police providing security at the Canadian High Commission in London. The military says he was placed on administrative duties after his arrest last year.
- Canadians and permanent residents held abroad who were freed this year
KEVIN GARRATT: The Canadian man accused of spying and jailed in China for more than two years was released in September and returned to Canada. Garratt and his wife, who are originally from Vancouver, lived in China for about 30 years. They conducted Christian aid work and ran a popular coffee shop near China's border with North Korea. The couple was detained in August 2014 but Garratt's wife was released on bail about six months later. In January, Garratt was indicted on accusations of spying for Canada and stealing Chinese state secrets. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Garratt was deported after a local court issued a verdict in his case, but it did not say what the verdict was. The Garratts, in their mid-50s, moved to China in 1984 and since 2008 ran a coffee shop in Dandong. Their son firmly denied his parents were involved in any sort of espionage. The couple was detained just days after Canada accused the Chinese of spying on federal government agencies.
HOMA HOODFAR: The Canadian-Iranian woman spent nearly four months in prison in Iran before being released in September. Hoodfar, 65, had been detained since June 6 at Tehran's notorious Evin prison on allegations of “dabbling in feminism” and security matters. The ex-Concordia University professor is known for her research on Muslim women in various regions of the world and there were suggestions Iranian authorities were particularly struck by her research on homosexuality and women's sexuality in the context of Muslim countries. She travelled to Iran in February to see family and do academic research but was arrested in March, just as she was set to return to Montreal. She was released on bail and then rearrested in early June. Since Canada has no diplomatic presence in Iran, the governments of Oman, Italy and Switzerland stepped in to help free Hoodfar. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government had “actively” worked for Hoodfar's release.
SALIM ALARADI: The Canadian man detained for nearly two years in the United Arab Emirates returned to Canada in June after being acquitted of all charges. Alaradi, who is of Libyan descent, had been accused of providing supplies to groups in a foreign country without permission of the U.A.E. government and collecting donations without the government's permission. He was found not guilty in the case in May, but wasn't immediately released, prompting his family to appeal to Ottawa to help bring him home. Alaradi immigrated to Canada in 1998 from the U.A.E. but returned there in 2007 to run a home appliance business. He was on vacation with his family in Dubai when he was suddenly arrested in August 2014. After being held for months without being charged, Alaradi was put on trial early this year on terrorism charges, which he pleaded not guilty to. Those charges were abruptly dropped in March and replaced with the two lesser offences he was acquitted on.
KHALED AL-QAZZAZ: The permanent resident of Canada was once an aide to Egypt's ousted president Mohammed Morsi and was arrested alongside the former leader in July 2013, when the Egyptian military removed Morsi from office. After an ordeal that lasted three years, Al-Qazzaz was abruptly cleared to return to Canada and landed in Toronto on Aug. 14. He was never charged, nor did Egyptian authorities explain exactly why they arrested him. The 37-year-old - who is now back in his Mississauga, Ont., home with his Canadian wife and four children - was initially held incommunicado for more than five months, his family said. He was then held in solitary confinement until he was transferred to a hospital in Cairo in late 2014 due to his deteriorating health, the family said. He was released from custody in January 2015 and was set to return to Canada in April that year but was stopped at Cairo's airport and told he couldn't leave. His approval to travel to Canada in August came suddenly, his family said, noting that the work of advocates, human rights groups and the Canadian government was all believed to have played a role.
COLIN RUTHERFORD: Rutherford was freed by the Taliban in January after being held hostage for five years in Afghanistan. The Taliban has said it freed Rutherford on “grounds of humanitarian sympathy and sublime Islamic ethics.” Rutherford was on a private vacation in Afghanistan when he was captured by the Taliban in November 2010. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said the government of Qatar had been involved in bringing about Rutherford's release. The Taliban said it had been holding Rutherford in Afghanistan's northeastern Ghazni province. A local Afghan police chief said the Canadian man's release involved a helicopter landing to scoop Rutherford to freedom as fighter jets flew overhead. Until his release, the last indication Rutherford's family had that he was alive came in a 2011 video released by insurgents where he answered questions. An accompanying email accused Rutherford, then 26, of being a spy. In the video, Rutherford, who is from Toronto, insisted he was not a spy and had travelled to Afghanistan to study historical sites, old buildings and shrines.
