Canada's former peace envoy to Sudan says she believes Canadian was 'tortured badly' in custody

A former senator and peace envoy to Sudan says she believes — based on her dealings with the northeast African country's notorious former spy chief — that Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian who was detained in Sudan for years, was "tortured badly" while in custody there.

Mobina Jaffer, who retired from the Senate in August after 23 years, testified Monday morning in a court hearing on Abdelrazik's lawsuit. She told the court she believes the federal government was complicit in his detention and torture abroad.

Abdelrazik, who was born in Sudan and became a Canadian citizen in 1995, was arrested in Sudan during a 2003 trip and interrogated while in custody by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officials about suspected extremist links. The Montreal-based father has denied any involvement with terrorism.

Abdelrazik spent the following six years in prison or in forced exile at the Canadian embassy in Khartoum as his attempts to return to Canada were rejected by the federal government.

Jaffer told an Ottawa courtroom Monday about her time as Canada's special envoy for peace in Sudan from 2002 to 2006, a job that sometimes took her to the war-torn country multiple times a year.

Jaffer said she would meet to report her movements with Gen. Salah Gosh, then the director of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Service.

She said Gosh — whom the U.S. has since sanctioned for threatening "the peace, security, or stability of Sudan" — told her about giving Abdelrazik "the treatment" during a meeting in 2004.

"Mr. Gosh was frustrated. He felt that Canadian officials had asked him to detain Abdelrazik. He had detained him. Then there were no charges. And so he said to me, 'Why are you not taking him back?'" Jaffer testified.

Abdelrazik was on a no-fly list at the time, meaning commercial airlines would not accept him as a passenger. 

"[Gosh] said to me that, 'Your country thought he was a terrorist and they wanted me to find out if he was a terrorist.' And then he said, 'You know, finding out [who is] a terrorist is not pleasant in Sudan and we gave him the treatment,'" said Jaffer.

She said Gosh told her that Sudan "did all kinds of ways to find out how, how, if he was a terrorist." She said he reported he was "completely satisfied" that Abdelrazik was not a terrorist and it was "time you took him back."

Abdelrazik's lawyer Paul Champ asked Jaffer if she understood what Gosh meant when he said they were trying to find out if his client was a terrorist.

"He definitely was tortured badly," said Jaffer.

"When they're trying to get you to admit that you are a terrorist or something like that, it's also extra worse treatment."

'I didn't do enough': Jaffer 

During cross examination, Crown lawyer David Aaron raised Gosh's alleged role in facilitating atrocities during the Darfur conflict and asked Jaffer why she would believe him.

"I don't think he would have lied to me," she said. "I don't think he would play a game with me. We had both become straight-shooters in our dealings."

CSIS has long denied asking Sudanese authorities to detain Abdelrazik in 2003. Officials from the intelligence agency are expected to testify during the eight-week trial.

Jaffer apologized to Abdelrazik for not doing enough to help him. She testified that at the time, she felt conflicted between her job as envoy and her role as senator and distanced herself from his case.

"His eyes have ever since haunted me because they were extremely scared. He was literally pleading with me to get him out of there and I didn't do enough," she said.

"Now when I look back, I'm very sorry that I didn't do more for this man because he suffered a lot. And what's the point of being a senator in Canada if you can't help your own Canadians?"

In 2009, a Federal Court justice found Abdelrazik's charter rights had been violated and ordered his return from Sudan.

One of his daughters, Joiyria Abdelrazik, testified Monday afternoon that after he came back, he would stress over small things like sounds and had a hard time sleeping.

"I know by his face that he feels sad," she testified.

Joiyria Abdelrazik, who was nine when her father first left for Sudan, said he told her he had been beaten while in detention.

"He got tortured. He showed me the marks that he has on his body, on his back," Joiyria Abdelrazik, now 30, testified. 

Under cross-examination, Crown attorney Leah Jamieson asked her if she remembered her father using the terms "jihad" or "mujahid" growing up. Jihad means a holy war waged on behalf of Islam, while mujahid can be interpreted as one who engages in jihad.

Joiyria Abdelrazik said she did not recall her father using those words.

"Do you recall your father shouting for joy after learning of 9/11?" asked Jamieson.

Again, Joiyria Abdelrazik said no. 

Abousfian Abdelrazik is seeking $27 million in his lawsuit against the federal government and former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon.

First filed in 2009, the case has been delayed for years to give court officials time to review and redact hundreds of pages of documents.