Former senator Mobina Jaffer arrives at Federal Court to testify in the Abousfian Abdelrazik civil trial in Ottawa on Oct. 28.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A former Canadian senator says Sudan’s spy chief told her during a 2004 visit to the northeast African country that the intelligence agency had given a detained Montreal man “the treatment” to find out whether he was a terrorist and determined he was not.
Mobina Jaffer, testifying Monday at the lawsuit trial of Abousfian Abdelrazik, said she was under no illusion about what Salah Gosh’s references to “the treatment” meant. “He definitely was tortured,” she said. “I immediately knew that he did not have a pleasant experience.”
She said Mr. Gosh was “frustrated” that Sudan had detained Mr. Abdelrazik at the request of Canadian officials, but Canada had not properly followed through on the matter. For one thing, he noted that Canada had not laid any charges against Mr. Abdelrazik.
“He said to me, ‘Why are you not taking him back?’”
Mr. Abdelrazik, who was born in Sudan and became a Canadian citizen in 1995, has launched a $27-million lawsuit against the federal government and former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon.
Abdelrazik tells of despair when Ottawa denied him passport to return home from Sudan
The 62-year-old man is accusing the defendants of abandoning him in Sudan for six years – 2003 to 2009 – which he says included detention and torture by Sudan’s intelligence agency over suspected links to terrorism.
Multiple times during her testimony in Federal Court, Ms. Jaffer expressed regret that she had not done more to help Mr. Abdelrazik, who was looking on from the spectators’ gallery of the downtown Ottawa courtroom.
“Now, when I look back, I am very sorry I didn’t do more for this man because he suffered a lot. What’s the point of being a senator in Canada if you can’t help your own Canadians?” said Ms. Jaffer, who retired from the Senate in August.
But she said she had a role as an envoy and didn’t want to engage in issues beyond her responsibilities.
Asked whether she recalled speaking to anyone in Canada about Mr. Abdelrazik’s situation, Ms. Jaffer said she did not.
Abousfian Abdelrazik arrives to Federal Court in Ottawa on Oct. 28.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
After returning to Sudan in 2003 to visit his ailing mother, he was taken into custody by the country’s National Intelligence and Security Service and questioned about alleged links to terrorism.
Mr. Abdelrazik denies involvement in terrorism.
His case alleges the Sudanese agency acted at the request of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which was monitoring and questioning him in Montreal.
On Monday, Ms. Jaffer said she travelled often to Sudan after she was appointed a peace envoy to Sudan by former prime minister Jean Chrétien.
Ms. Jaffer said she met with Mr. Gosh often on trips to talk about where she was going to travel so the intelligence agency would not interfere in her work.
Recalling her 2004 meeting, she said the intelligence officer grew exasperated with her after she expressed her own frustration about a matter in Sudan.
“He said, ‘You’re not completely clean either’ and he told me about Mr. Abdelrazik. To the best of my recollection, that was the first time I heard about him.”
“He said to me, ‘Your country thought he was a terrorist, and they wanted me to find out if he was a terrorist.’” She said he added that finding out whether someone is a terrorist “is not pleasant in Sudan.”
She said Mr. Gosh told her his team had taken steps to find out whether the detained Mr. Abdelrazik was a terrorist.
“‘We gave him the treatment,’” Ms. Jaffer said, recalling Mr. Gosh’s words. “‘We did all kinds of ways to find out how, if he was a terrorist, and we are completely satisfied that he is not a terrorist, and your country has not laid any charges against him so it’s time to take him back.’”
The former senator said Mr. Abdelrazik could not fly on commercial flights because of terrorism allegations against him. Mr. Gosh suggested that perhaps Sudan’s commercial airline could fly Mr. Abdelrazik to Ottawa, but that did not happen.
Montreal man detained in Sudan gets day in court with lawsuit against Ottawa
At the time, Aileen Carroll, who was Canada’s international co-operation minister, was in Sudan, travelling with a government Challenger jet.
Mr. Gosh suggested the minister take Mr. Abdelrazik home and Ms. Jaffer raised the idea with the minister, but her flight was full, Ms. Jaffer testified.
She said she met Mr. Abdelrazik on a subsequent trip to Sudan in March, 2005, and he was frustrated.
She said he told her the abuse he suffered at the hands of Sudanese intelligence included being hit with pipes. “He said to me that they were treating him really badly.”