Former Libyan ambassador to Canada Fathi Baja, who was never charged with any crime, was trying to immigrate to Canada when the Internal Security Agency in Benghazi detained him on Oct. 1, 2023.Wissam Saleh/The Canadian Press
A former Libyan ambassador, who hid documents to thwart the theft of sanctioned Gadhafi family assets in Canada, was released from prison more than 10 months after his arrest in the North African country.
Fathi Baja – Libya’s top envoy in Canada from 2013 to 2017 – was freed from detention on Sunday, a relative confirmed. Three political activists, who were colleagues of Mr. Baja, were also released from prison, according to Libyan news reports.
Mr. Baja, who was never charged with any crime, was trying to immigrate to Canada when the Internal Security Agency in Benghazi detained him on Oct. 1, 2023. He was imprisoned on the orders of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the head of Libya’s eastern forces who is backed by the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization, The Globe and Mail reported earlier this year.
This month, about 60 Libyan political parties signed a statement condemning the lengthy detentions of political activists, including Mr. Baja. Those imprisonments occur “outside the framework of the law,” the statement said.
“The joint efforts of his loved ones, his friends, his affiliates and his colleagues, as well as the Libyan political parties, seem to have paid off,” his second-born son, Yousif Baja, said in an interview. “He’s in good spirits.”
The elder Mr. Baja, who was helping establish a local political party at the time of his arrest, was not available for comment on Tuesday. No details were immediately available about his health.
It was not known if Ottawa was assisting Mr. Baja with coming to Canada. “Global Affairs Canada cannot comment on individual cases for privacy reasons,” spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod wrote in an e-mailed statement.
In April, Canada characterized the imprisonment of Mr. Baja and his colleagues as arbitrary detention. Canadian officials also joined the United Nations in calling for a transparent, independent inquiry into the death of one of Mr. Baja’s associates. Political activist Siraj Daghman, who was arrested with Mr. Baja, died while in custody at the Rajma military camp.
An academic with a PhD in comparative politics and political theory, Mr. Baja left his Ottawa diplomatic post in 2017. He then returned to Libya and applied for immigration to Canada. His wife, Rabea Deheideh, and their three children were granted refugee status here because they were previously targeted by fundamentalists in Libya, according to a 2020 decision by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The document also lists Mr. Baja’s political adversaries, including Mr. Haftar. Ms. Deheideh is now a permanent resident, and her two sons, Mohammad Baja and Yousif Baja, are Canadian citizens. Her daughter Hamida Baja has a postgraduate work permit and is the mother of a Canadian-born child.
Months before his arrest, Mr. Baja divulged to The Globe that he was safeguarding documents pertaining to the billions of dollars the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi stashed in Canadian bank accounts and to a Toronto penthouse owned by his son, Saadi Gadhafi.
A critic of the former Gadhafi regime, Mr. Baja said he kept the cache of documents after leaving Ottawa because he was worried the money and luxury property could fall into the hands of corrupt officials. Prior to Mr. Baja’s disclosure, The Globe exposed a secret plan to sell the Toronto penthouse in violation of UN sanctions.