Newsline: Innocent Canadian held in Beirut says embassy no help

November 25, 2011 at 6:54 am · Filed under Canada, Lebanon

A Canadian man detained recently in Beirut – in a case of mistaken identity – says the Canadian Embassy did nothing to help him or his family through a frightening situation. “You feel like an animal that’s sitting in a jail cell. You don’t even know what you did. You are in a foreign country,” said Ahmed Metwali. “And you can’t depend on the embassy. You have to fend for yourself.” Metwali flew to Lebanon in early October for a wedding, along with several relatives. He said Lebanese authorities pulled him aside, and accused him of being on the run – wanted for crimes in Saudi Arabia. Metwali was born in Canada and works for Air Canada at the Calgary airport, where he has top security clearances. He apparently has the same name and birth year as not one, but two Islamist extremists wanted by Interpol. “I said to him, ‘I’m Canadian. I was born in Canada.’ He looked at me and he looked at my passport and he threw it on the desk and he said, ‘You are not in Canada anymore.'” Mohamed Metwali says he made frantic calls to the Canadian embassy, trying get help for his son, but was told to hire a lawyer instead. As he was scrambling, he said he called the Canadian Embassy in Beirut, looking for help. He says a Lebanese staffer working there told him she couldn’t do anything to help. Metwali believes if his family hadn’t been there to help, he could have been on a plane to Saudi Arabia. The Metwalis believe the federal government did nothing to help them, despite Ottawa’s assertion that embassy officials tried. Metwali complained to his MP, Rob Anders, who told CBC News he’s heard many similar complaints about local hires at Canadian embassies and consulates. Between 80 and 90 per cent of staff at overseas embassies are not Canadian. “They are cheaper, but I would support local hires being replaced by more Canadians, even though it would cost more,” the Conservative politician said. Gar Pardy, former head of consular affairs, has been calling for years for a law to make immediate assistance for Canadians in trouble mandatory, similar to the protection U.S. citizens have. This case comes to light as another Canadian, New Brunswick farmer Henk Tepper, sits in a Lebanese jail. He is being held on an Interpol warrant for allegedly exporting rotten potatoes to Algeria. Tepper’s supporters say the Canadian Embassy in Beirut has also done little to help him. They say he has been detained without charge in a crowded jail cell since March. “The embassy has been doing absolutely nothing to help us,” said Tepper’s lawyer, James Mockler, of New Brunswick. “Once a month, he gets a brief visit from a Canadian official.” Mockler said Ambassador Hilary Childs-Adams recently met with the Lebanese justice minister, but Tepper was imprisoned for six months before that happened. A spokesman for the minister responsible for consulate services, Diane Ablonczy, said she wasn’t available to answer questions about consular services and would not talk about the Metwali case.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/11/18/bc-beirutdetention.html

Comments