Sudanese-Canadian man exiled abroad in limbo

A Sudanese-Canadian man detained in Sudan will remain in legal limbo for at least another month, despite his desire to come home now, his lawyer said.

Abousfian Abdelrazik’s attorney filed action in federal court on Wednesday seeking a mandatory order for his immediate repatriation, under Section 6 of the Canadian Charter of Rights.

But it will be a few weeks before Ottawa is forced to respond to the request, leaving Abdelrazik stranded in a grey legal zone at the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, said his lawyer, Yavar Hameed.

"The responsibility, morally, legally and under international law is for Canada to bring him back," he told CBC News.

"He finds himself in the embassy. It’s not a position he can stay in indefinitely. He’s in poor health, his food choices are limited – he mostly eats rice," said Hameed, who is based in Ottawa. "We would like to get him back to his family."

Abdelrazik, 46, is accused of having ties to al-Qaeda and other terrorist organization cells in Montreal in the late 1990s.

 No charges have ever been laid against him.

He was arrested during a visit to Sudan in 2003. Sudanese authorities arrested Abdelrazik based on a Canadian Security and Intelligence Service tip. He remained detained until 2006, when he was released from a Sudan prison in July after authorities found no evidence to support criminal charges.

Abdelrazik has been unable to return to Canada since then because he has no passport, which expired while he was in detention, and because his name appears on a United Nations no-fly list.

The Canadian embassy granted Abdelrazik "temporary safe haven" in Khartoum.

His supporters have demanded the federal government charge him if they think he is a terrorist. They accuse the government of meddling in his case to prevent his return to Montreal, where he lived with his family.