Stories of Canadians seized overseas, detained and thrown into squalid jails have become sadly commonplace in recent years. But the latest, of Bashir Makhtal, is especially alarming, because the former Toronto man faces a potential death sentence after an Ethiopian court declared him guilty of having links with a separatist and terrorist organization. His sentence will be handed down tomorrow.
Makhtal’s real crime appears to be having a grandfather who founded the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which Ethiopia has labelled a terrorist group – and to which Makhtal says he has never belonged. An ethnic Somali from Ethiopia’s embattled eastern Ogaden region, young Bashir was sent to Somalia for safety at the age of seven. But a flaring civil war forced him to flee to Canada in 1991.
After 10 years in Canada, Makhtal returned to Africa to open a trading business, apparently to support impoverished relatives. In December of 2006, he was arrested by Kenyan authorities while re-entering the country from a business trip to Somalia, which had enjoyed a period of relative calm until it was attacked by Ethiopian troops fighting to dislodge an Islamic government. Caught in a sweep of terrorism suspects, he was stripped of his Canadian passport and deported, under protest, to Ethiopia.
Since then, Makhtal has been subjected to solitary confinement, interrogated in a language he doesn’t speak, and hauled before a military tribunal. Canadian officials were denied access to him for 16 months. But after Transport Minister John Baird took an interest in his plight last year – following pleas from Somali constituents –Makhtal’s conditions improved and his case was moved to a civilian court.
However, human rights groups say the case against Makhtal is seriously flawed. In protest, his Canadian lawyer filed a suit to limit Ottawa’s non-humanitarian aid to Ethiopia.
Although Baird continues to support Makhtal, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have been silent. That sends a mixed message to Ethiopia. With tomorrow’s deadline looming, they should do everything possible to urge that Makhtal not receive a death sentence. Then, they should find a way that he can be repatriated. It’s time his ordeal was ended.
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