Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian who spent years imprisoned in Sudan and was later banned from returning to Canada because he was on a UN blacklist, says he will try to live a "normal life" now that his name has been cleared.

Abdelrazik's name was removed from the UN Security Council terrorist blacklist this week, meaning he can once again have a bank account and a job -- opportunities that have been unavailable to him since his return to Canada in 2009.

Abdelrazik told CTV News Channel on Thursday he is relieved to have his name removed from the list.

"I (will) live my life normally, look for a job, live my life as a normal Canadian," he said, when asked about his plans for the future.

Abdelrazik's lawyer Paul Champ said his client's status on the blacklist has meant he has had to live his life under crippling restrictions since his return to Canada.

"It's been a criminal offence for anyone to even buy lunch for Mr. Abdelrazik since he returned to Canada and also to have bank accounts is prohibited unless the UN Security Council approves it. To get a job the Security Council had to approve it, which made it practically impossible," Champ said.

"To get the child tax benefits, to get a pension that he receives -- all of that was made almost impossible because of the restrictions related to this listing."

The Sudanese-born Abdelrazik was arrested and imprisoned, but not charged, when he travelled to Sudan in 2003 to visit his mother.

He ended up spending six years exiled in Sudan with an expired passport. He was jailed twice during that period and claims he was tortured before he was eventually released and granted shelter at the Canadian embassy in Khartoum.

Champ said in all that time the Canadian government provided no assistance in Abdelrazik's bid to return home, to clear his name, or even to learn why he was under suspicion.

Both CSIS and the RCMP eventually cleared Abdelrazik, but it wasn't until a federal court judge in Canada ordered his repatriation that Ottawa allowed him to fly home in 2009.

Until now Abdelrazik has remained on the UN blacklist.

In all that time, Champ said, no allegations were officially raised against the Montreal man and no charges were laid.

"The United Nations provided almost no information about why Mr. Abdelrazik was placed on the list and frankly we don't even know why he was taken off," Champ told CTV News Channel.

"We did make a petition and made submissions to the UN but what it is we said or did that led to Mr. Abdelrazik being delisted we just don't know because the process is just so secretive."

Some allegations against Abdelrazik have emerged in the media in recent years. A document published in Montreal's La Presse newspaper, purportedly obtained through sources at CSIS, alleged Abdelrazik and Adil Charkaoui discussed a plot in 2000 to blow up a plane bound for France.

And in a lengthy interview with The Globe and Mail in September 2009, Abdelrazik admitted that during the 1990s he visited Bosnia, Pakistan and Georgia -- countries troubled by Islamic militancy.

But he denied allegations he visited Afghanistan and Chechnya, and attributed his lengthy travels to humanitarian and religious work.

However, he refused to speak about what he was doing on the many trips he did take, who funded the travel and which organization, if any, he was working with.