Family and supporters of Canadian citizen Bashir Makhtal will once again turn to Ottawa to seek his freedom after the supreme court of Ethiopia upheld his conviction and life sentence for terrorist activities.
Family and supporters of Makhtal, who say he is innocent, are now developing a new plan that will include lobbying every member of Parliament.
They will also try to get a motion passed in the House of Commons to repatriate Makhtal, said his Canadian human rights lawyer Lorne Waldman Friday after the release of the Ethiopian court ruling.
Plans are also in the works for a news conference and a meeting with Federal Transport Minister John Baird, who has taken an interest in the case. Baird has said he believes Makhtal, a former Torontonian, is innocent.
Baird told the Star Friday that it remains the "government's priority to get Bashir home to Canada."
He has a visa to travel to Ethiopia and hopes to arrange meetings with senior politicians in Addis Ababa in the next month or so. He is prepared to go as soon as Parliament breaks for Christmas.
"Our single goal now is to get Bashir home to his family and friends," Baird said.
Makhtal is serving his sentence in an Addis Ababa prison for crimes against the country. He was convicted earlier this year of being a member of a separatist group, engaging in an armed struggle against the government, and of aiding and abetting the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a religious alliance that seized control of Somalia before it was ousted by U.S. and Ethiopian forces in 2006.
Makhtal, an ethnic Somali born in Ethiopia's Ogaden region, was in Somalia selling used clothes when war broke out in 2006. He fled the capital and was arrested in December 2006 along with dozens of other foreign nationals on the border of Somalia. He was then taken to jail in Nairobi.
Just before he was to appear in court there he was whisked out of the country – one of about 150 people who were secretly rendered to Ethiopia.
In previous discussions with Ethiopian officials, Baird and other Canadian officials were told it was difficult for the Ethiopian government to intervene in a matter before the courts.
Now that judicial process is over, Baird said, he is free to meet with "key decision makers" in Addis Ababa to make the case to send Makhtal home.
Waldman believes Makhtal's only hope is political pressure from the Canadian government.
"It's not acceptable and we cannot continue to operate as business as usual with Ethiopia when an innocent man is languishing in prison for life," he said.
He believes Canada should use not only its political clout but also financial pressure and withdraw all federal aid to Ethiopia.
There is still a possibility that Makhtal could apply for a pardon under Ethiopian law, or appeal to the Ethiopian Court of Cassation, which reviews errors of law. Both these options still have to be discussed with Makhtal.
Deeply saddened by the Ethiopian Supreme Court's rejection of the appeal, Said Maktal, Bashir's cousin, is calling again for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to directly intervene in the case. Baird is on the record saying the Canadian government remains "committed at the highest levels" to do everything it can to help Makhtal return to Canadasource
Sources Bye ;Thestar
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