Abousfian Abdelrazik, right, arrives to Federal Court in Ottawa on Oct. 21.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A Montreal man accusing the Canadian government of abandoning him in Sudan for six years that included detention and torture over suspected links to terrorism has acknowledged he encountered a pair of men later convicted in high-profile terrorism cases, but says his encounters were fleeting.
Sudan-born Abousfian Abdelrazik, 62, testified about his encounters with Ahmed Ressam and Fateh Kamel on Monday as his lawsuit against the federal government went to court in Ottawa after 15 years of delays.
“I’ve waited so long,” Mr. Abdelrazik told journalists outside the court complex in downtown Ottawa before the start of proceedings expected to last about eight weeks.
He is seeking $27-million in damages from the federal government and Lawrence Cannon, the foreign affairs minister during the latter part of his 2003 to 2009 ordeal in Sudan. He was imprisoned for 19 months, during which he says he was beaten and tortured, and held under varied forms of house arrest for an additional months.
Mr. Abdelrazik’s lawsuit alleges Mr. Cannon rejected the advice of government staff to provide documentation to allow Mr. Abdelrazik’s return to Canada.
Mr. Abdelrazik secured refugee status in Canada in 1990 and became a Canadian citizen in 1995.
On Monday, federal lawyer Andrew Gibbs said Mr. Abdelrazik was the author of his own misfortune, noting he went to visit a country he had earlier fled.
“Canada did not arrest him. Canada did not urge Sudan to keep him in detention, and Canada did not mistreat or torture him, or create a risk that these things might happen,” he said,
He mentioned, in his opening remarks, that Mr. Abdelrazik admitted to knowing the two men convicted of terrorism offenses.
But Mr. Abdelrazik told the court the encounters were fleeting.
Mr. Ressam, an Algerian-born Montrealer, was found guilty of planning to blow up the Los Angeles airport, after his 1999 arrest in Seattle in a car filled with explosives.
Mr. Abdelrazik testified he met Mr. Ressam in about 1994 among other friends in Montreal, described him as very quiet and last saw him once in 1999 at a Montreal subway. He said Mr. Ressam said he had moved to Vancouver. “That was the last time I saw him,” Mr. Abdelrazik said, responding to questions from his lawyer Paul Champ.
Later he testified that members of the RCMP came to see him, asked him about his association with Mr. Ressam, and that he later testified by camera at Mr. Ressam’s trial. “I don’t remember all the questions,” he said Monday.
Fateh Kamel was convicted in France, in 2001, on terrorism charges, served four years in prison and returned to Canada in 2005 after being released early for good behavior. Mr. Abdelrazik said he had fleeting encounters with Mr. Kamel, including at a Montreal mosque and social encounters at an apartment.
Mr. Abdelrazik says he was detained by agents of the Sudanese National Security Intelligence agency in 2003 after travelling to his native Sudan for family reasons, then faced challenges securing Canadian help to get home.
His case alleges the Sudan intelligence agency acted at the request of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which was monitoring and questioning him in Montreal.
Mr. Abdelrazik’s lawyer, Mr. Champ, in his opening remarks, said Canadian officials did not want Mr. Abdelrazik tortured, but they did not want him to return to Canada after his detention in Sudan.
“The evidence you’re going to hear in this trial is shocking,” Mr. Champ told Federal Court Justice Patrick Gleeson, who is hearing the case. “It’s a case about a Canadian citizen who, for more than a decade, had almost every one of his rights and freedoms protected by the Charter violated or infringed in some way.”
On Monday, Mr. Abdelrazik testified about CSIS agents turning up at his home in Montreal to try to question him on multiple occasions in 2001.
He said he agreed to an interview at a Harvey’s restaurant where he was asked about various “names” and his travels outside Canada. At another interview as he tried to catch a bus, he said CSIS agents asked him if he knew about people “planning to do something in Canada.” He said he told them he did not.
He said CSIS agents approached his late wife Johanne Robitaille at a restaurant she was at with her father. “They said, `If you have anything about your husband, tell us. This is a bad guy. We want to protect Canada from this guy.’” He said his wife rejected the allegation.
Witnesses at the eight-week trial are expected to include Mr. Cannon, former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier, former senator Mobina Jaffer and David Vigneault, the former CSIS director.