Passport seized, Saudi ‘fled’ Canada

SYDNEY, N.S. • A 28-year-old Saudi man charged with sexually assaulting a Cape Breton woman has gone missing, with a leading immigration lawyer saying it may be a case of the Middle Eastern kingdom helping a citizen flee while awaiting trial.

Nova Scotia’s prosecution service says Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi had $37,500 of his bail posted by the Saudi Arabian embassy last year in relation to the alleged sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement of the woman between Aug. 1, 2015, and March 26, 2017.

Alzoabi is also facing separate charges of dangerous driving and assault with a car in a December 2015 incident involving a Cape Breton man.

The money the kingdom provided for Alzoabi’s bail last year was forfeited when he failed to appear in court last Monday, said prosecutor Shane Russell.

A court document says the sheriff unsuccessfully tried to locate Alzoabi on Dec. 8, and quotes his lawyer at the time, David Iannetti, as saying Alzoabi “fled the country some time ago,” even though police had seized his passport.

Veteran immigration lawyer Lee Cohen said in an interview that the likeliest way Alzoabi would have left the country without a passport is with embassy-issued travel documents, as airlines face heavy fines if they board passengers without the government-issued permission or a passport.

The Saudi Arabian embassy has not responded to emails or telephone calls requesting comment.

“In order for this guy to leave Canada without a passport, it had to be facilitated by the Saudi government, or some government, and there’s no reason to believe that any other government would put themselves in this position,” said Cohen, who has practised immigration law for decades.

“It’s intriguing to me as to why the Saudi government would put up bail and then facilitate his departure from Canada before he had an opportunity to complete the criminal process. This is a foreign government interfering with the criminal process.”

In the U.S., there have been reports of Saudi students leaving the country mysteriously as they faced serious criminal charges.

The Oregonian newspaper has reported recently on the flight last year of Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, a Portland, Ore., community college student who jumped bail in the hit-and-run death of a 15-year-old Portland girl and apparently fled the U.S.

He was being monitored on a GPS bracelet, but someone cut the bracelet and he left the country two weeks before his trial. The news site reported Sunday it has found criminal cases involving at least five other Saudis who vanished before they faced trial or completed their jail sentence in the state.

Cape Breton Regional Police have issued a warrant for Alzoabi’s arrest for failing to appear for his trial.