Canada’s intelligence agency amassed a sizable file on Abousfian Abdelrazik’s suspected terrorism ties in the early 2000s, although the validity of that intelligence was called into question during the Montreal man’s Federal Court case.
The court hearing Abdelrazik’s lawsuit against the federal government heard Tuesday from a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) employee who was one of the lead investigators on his file during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Abdelrazik, 62, is suing the federal government for $27 million, accusing it of being complicit in his arbitrary imprisonment and alleged torture in Sudan starting in 2003. The The Sudanese-born Canadian citizen has denied any involvement with terrorism.
As part of his years-in-the making lawsuit, Abdelrazik alleges the federal government encouraged his detention and actively obstructed his repatriation to Canada for several years.
He returned to Canada in 2009 after the Federal Court ruled Ottawa breached his constitutional rights by refusing to give him an emergency passport.
The witness — whose identity was protected and was referred to only as ‘C’ — was shown multiple reports from two decades ago analyzing Abdelrazik’s intercepted conversations and internet searches in the years before his disputed detention in Sudan.
Testifying for the defence — in this case the federal government — the CSIS employee suggested the agency was worried Abdelrazik was sympathetic to Sunni Muslim extremism and wanted to die a martyr.
During one of his objections Tuesday, Abdelrazik’s lawyer Paul Champ said some of the statements being put to ‘C’ were not true or incapable of proof.
Federal lawyer Andrew Gibbs said the documents were being shown because it’s what CSIS believed to be true at the time, “and not for the proof of the truth of its contents in detail.”
Abdelrazik’s associations concerned CSIS: witness
According to the partial agreed statement of facts, CSIS first took an interest in Abdelrazik in 1996 due to his association with people suspected of being national security threats.
Over subsequent years, the service amassed a file mapping those associations, according to exhibits entered into evidence Tuesday.
Testifying in French, ‘C’ said that CSIS believed at the time that Abdelrazik was having “problematic” conversations.
Documents shown to the courtroom showed CSIS was also watching his internet searches. The CSIS documents shown in court show some of the websites Abdelrazik is accused of visiting glorified suicide bombings.
‘C’ also said that, in an intercepted conversation, Abdelrazik mentioned that he wished to become a martyr to his young daughter, spiking CSIS’s concerns.
The witness was one of the CSIS agents who visited and interviewed Abdelrazik in Canada and in Sudan.
‘C’ visited Abdelrazik on Sept.11, 2001. Abdelrazik denied any involvement in the terrorism attack in the U.S., the witness said.
Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan during a 2003 trip to visit his mother and was interrogated while in custody by Sudanese officials and CSIS agents about suspected extremist links, the court has heard.
CSIS has long denied telling Sudan to detain or continue to detain Abdelrazik.
Lawyers for the federal government have rejected suggestions that the Crown breached any duty of care owed to Abdelrazik, or that any such breach contributed to his alleged false imprisonment, torture and abuse.
Abdelrazik was never charged with any terrorism offences. In 2007, the RCMP cleared Abdelrazik, confirming publicly that it had no “substantive information” indicating he was involved in criminal activity.
‘C’ is expected to continue their testimony and be cross-examined on Wednesday.
