Hiiraan Online
Saturday April 21, 2018
Toronto
(HOL) - A Toronto man is celebrating his release from an Ethiopian
prison where he languished since his extraordinary rendition from Kenya
to Ethiopia in 2006.
Canadian Bashir Makhtal, 49, was released by
Ethiopian authorities after 11 years of lobbying by the Canadian
government and his family for his release. He arrived in Canada on a
flight from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, on Saturday greeted by
family, friends and well-wishers at the airport.
Makhtal was
arrested in on December 30, 2006, after fleeing Mogadishu and the fall
of the Islamic Courts Union. He was secretly questioned in Nairobi and
then placed on a flight to Ethiopia in shackles and without any formal
extradition proceedings. He was accused of being a ringleader of the
Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and charged with multiple counts of
terrorism. Ethiopian authorities did not acknowledge that they had
arrested Makhtal until July 2007, six months after his rendition from
Kenya.
His 2009 trial was quickly condemned by human rights
groups as a travesty of justice. Makhtal was denied a fair trial and
subjected to torture by his interrogators. He was quickly convicted and
sentenced to life in prison.
Ethiopia classifies the ONLF as a
"terrorist" organization. The United States, United Kingdom, the
European Union and Canada - of which Makthal is a citizen, do not.
"Once
charges were laid against Makhtal we pressed for him to be provided
with a fair trial and an opportunity to mount an effective defence, such
as by having full access to allegations, evidence and witnesses against
him," Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International in Canada,
told Al Jazeera.
"That was not the case, nor was his appeal hearing a fair process," Neve said.
Bashir Makthal's version of events was
that he was in Somalia doing business in 2006 when the Ethiopian
military invaded Somalia to oust the Islamic Court Union. Makthal - and
thousands of other internally displaced people - fled to the Kenyan
border for safety.
Bashir Mukhtal (L) arrives in Canada on April 21, 2018. He spent the previous 11 years in an Ethiopian prison. PHOTO: Supplied
After arriving in Canada in 1991, Makhtal had returned to Africa in 2002 to run a used clothing business out of Djibouti.
In
a hand-written note obtained by the Toronto Star in 2011, Makhtal said
that he was arrested “because of my grandfather’s role in Ethiopian
politics.” Makhtal’s grandfather, Makhtal Dahir, was one of the founding
members of the ONLF.
Makhtal's relatives say that his oldest
brother, Hassan Ahmed Makhtal, was also imprisoned and tortured in
Ethiopia. His family says the elder Makhtal died in 2009 as a result of
his injuries sustained in an Ethiopian jail.
Despite years of
lobbying by Makthal's family and the Canadian government - including a
visit from then Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird - , Ethiopia denied
Makhtal a prison transfer. His family wavered in their hope that Bashir
would ever be free.
However, earlier this year, his family received a
glimmer of hope. After three years of mass protests in the country's
Oromia and Amhara regions, the Ethiopian government released thousands
of political prisoners, including a journalists and a senior opposition
leader.
In February, the Ethiopian government began negotiating
with the ONLF. Officials from the ONLF and the Ethiopian government met
at a secret location in Nairobi for the first time since previous talks
in 2012 and 2013 fizzled out without either group making any
concessions.
Makhtal's wife, Asiso Abdi, told Al Jazeera that Ethiopian authorities could be persuaded to include Bashir among those freed
"If
the government of Justin Trudeau is willing to get Bashir home, there
will never be a better time than now," Abdi said. "When there is a life,
there is a hope."Bashir is expected to return to Toronto where he lived prior to his ordeal.