Muslim Council of Montreal welcomes removal of Canadian’s name from UN blacklist

December 2, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Montreal, Quebec, December 1st, 2011- The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) welcomed the recent removal of Abousfian Abdelrazik’s name from the United Nations Security Council terrorist blacklist this week.

“We congratulate Mr. Abdelrazik for his determination and success in having his name removed from this blacklist,” stated Salam Elmenyawi, president of MCM. “Since his return to Canada, Mr. Abdelrazik has been forced to live under crippling restrictions, despite his innocence and the lack of any evidence against him. He was unable to work, to travel and even to have a bank account. He was abandoned by his own Canadian government and left to suffer, but now he has a chance to resume a normal life and seek the justice he deserves.”

After spending six years of forced exile in Sudan, during which he was detained without charge in prison and tortured, Mr. Abdelrazik was finally allowed to return home to Canada in 2009, when a Federal Court Justice ruled that his charter right to return home had been breached and ordered his repatriation. The ruling also found that CSIS was complicit in Mr. Abdelrazik’s detention in Sudan and he was exonerated of all accusations of terrorism.

 “The removal of Mr. Abdelrazik’s name from this list is only one of many required actions to fully bring justice to this case,” Elmenyawi said. “It is inexcusable that the RCMP and CSIS treated Mr. Abdelrazik in this manner, asking a known torture state to detain a Canadian citizen on the basis of mere suspicion. There must be a full inquiry in this case, in order to ensure that such a thing is not allowed to happen again.”

 

 CONTACT:

Salam Elmenyawi

Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM)

Ph.: (514) 748-8427

E-mail: info@muslimcouncil.org

Website: http://www.muslimcouncil.org

 

The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella organization representing a number of Islamic institutions in the Montreal region. There are over 275,000 Muslims in Montreal, about 1,200,000 in Canada and 1.9 billion worldwide.


-30-