A Canadian man who was stranded and allegedly tortured in Sudan for nearly six years is suing Ottawa and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon for $27 million.
Lawyers for Abousfian Abdelrazik filed a lawsuit in Federal Court earlier this week seeking $24 million from the federal government, and accusing it of condoning his torture and blocking his return to Canada.
Abdelrazik is seeking damages of $3 million from Cannon "on the basis of misfeasance in public office," as well as for the mental anguish the he allegedly suffered while in the hands of Sudanese authorities.
The $27-million total is more than twice the $10.5 million the federal government gave Maher Arar after CSIS gave the U.S. mistaken information linking him to terrorists groups. The U.S. sent him to Syria where he was tortured.
Abdelrazik's lawsuit alleges Ottawa's involvement was more direct and negligent than in Arar's case.
Abdelrazik, 47, was arrested in Sudan when he went to visit his sick mother in September 2003. He finally returned in June, after fighting with Ottawa to get permission to return to Canada.
In the lawsuit, Abdelrazik personally blames Cannon for allegedly failing to keep promises to give him an emergency passport to return to Canada.
In 2006, the United States designated Abdelrazik as someone who poses a "significant risk of committing acts of terrorism."
Ottawa has attempted to get his name removed from a UN no-fly list that says he is associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban.
He appears on the list even though neither CSIS nor the RCMP could find evidence linking him to criminal activities. Abdelrazik was never charged with a crime in Canada or in Sudan.
During his years in Sudan, Abdelrazik says he was detained, and beaten for months at a time and was not legally allowed to work.
The statement of claim alleges that Abdelrazik was tortured and subjected to a number of mistreatments in Sudan's Kober prison in January 2004. They included being "deprived of sleep, subjected to verbal assaults, pummeled kicked and flogged with a rubber hose on his back and legs." Abdelrazik also claims that his jailers also took away his asthma medication and eyeglasses.
Abdelrazik also alleges that he received similar treatment when he was re-arrested and detained in Dabak prison, located north of Khartoum, about two-and-a-half years later.
When he refused to take his meals, Abdelrazik was "slammed against the wall, kicked, slapped and beaten by two soldiers at once with rubber hoses," the lawsuit claims.
None of the lawsuit's claims have been proven yet in a court of law. It could be weeks or months before the federal government files a statement of defence. An actual trial, if the parties don't settle, could be years into the future.
Abdelrazik was eventually released from custody in July 2006.
After Sudanese intelligence officials warned him not to speak to journalists, he fled to the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum in April 2008, where he lived for more than a year until his release.
In June, Federal Court Justice Russell Zinn ruled that Ottawa had violated Abdelrazik's constitutional rights, and ordered that the federal government bring the Sudanese-Canadian back home.
Abdelrazik landed in Toronto on the afternoon of June 27. He travelled back home to Montreal that same night. He had been living in Montreal since coming to Canada in 1989.
With files from the Canadian Press
