Calls grow to release Canadian in Egyptian jail
Politicians, activists and a former top CSIS official are calling on the federal government to demand the early release of Canadian citizen Mohamed El Attar from an Egyptian prison.
“The fact that I’m here speaks volumes to the fact that Mr. El Attar is innocent,” Andy Ellis, former assistant director of operations for the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, said in Ottawa Thursday.
“Mr. El Attar is a Canadian like we’re all Canadians. He’s a human being like we’re all human beings. He deserves the mercy and support of all Canadians, and he deserves, frankly, the mercy and support of the Egyptian government.”
According to human rights organization One Free World International, El Attar fled Egypt to Turkey in 2002 due to persecution related to his homosexuality and conversion to Christianity. El Attar, then in his early 30s, was resettled to Canada that year by the UN’s refugee agency.
By 2007, he had become a Canadian citizen and was working in Toronto as a bank teller for CIBC. He travelled to Egypt that year to reconnect with friends and family, the organization says, and was arrested, based on claims he was feeding information on Toronto’s Arab community to the Israeli government.
El Attar’s only previous interaction with police in Cairo had been related to a car crash in 2001.
“We meet on the eve of the 10th anniversary of his imprisonment,” former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler said Thursday, calling El Attar’s arrest “illegal and arbitrary.”
Proceedings took place in a “national security” court and were devoid of the right to a fair hearing in regular criminal court, Cotler said. El Attar was also denied the right to appeal his conviction.
It was a conviction based on confessions elicited through torture, El Attar’s lawyer told Majed El Shafie, the founder of One Free World International. Authorities allegedly forced El Attar to drink his own urine, and dealt him “electroshock therapy.”
With 10 years of a 15-year sentence served, El Attar is now eligible for early release, Conservative foreign affairs critic Peter Kent said.
Global Affairs Canada must do “all in their power” to impress this urgent request on the Egyptian government, Kent said.
“I know that Egypt can do the right thing,” Cotler added.
According to Ellis, Canadian authorities had “looked into” the Egyptian government’s charges against El Attar at the time he was arrested. There is no need for any further investigation now, he said.
“The charges, on their best day, were questionable. As Mr. Cotler said, the way in which he was brought to trial was also questionable,” Ellis said.
“In this case, I think we can do a lot more for a poor young man who was left alone in a terrible situation in Egyptian jail.”
Green Party leader Elizabeth May said in the “current climate,” some Canadians may worry that allegations were based on something — where there’s smoke, there’s fire — and wonder whether this man should be brought back into the country.
But those concerns are not valid, May urged. “There is no security concern whatsoever. Mr. El Attar is welcome home in Canada,” she said. “Canadians recognize that he is one of us. A Canadian citizen.”
Kristine Racicot, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said: “The Government of Canada continues to actively advocate in support of Mr. Attar’s right to due process. We are in regular contact with local officials in Egypt and are monitoring his case closely. Canadian consular officials continue to provide consular services to Mr. Attar.”