Family of asylum seeker intimidated after Canada official contacts Egypt regime

Middle East Monitor – The family of an Egyptian asylum seeker facing deportation from Canada are being intimidated after a Canadian official contacted authorities in Cairo.

Abdelrahman Elmady says that as a result of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA)’s actions, Egyptian authorities are watching and intimidating his father, wife and two children.

His father was arrested for two days.

Egypt regularly persecutes the families of Egyptians at home who speak out against their human rights abuses abroad as a way to silence them.

Abdelrahman Elmady is facing deportation from Canada after the CBSA said he was a “security threat” because he is a member of the Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt, which is the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not classed as a terror group in Canada, however shortly after the 2013 coup in Egypt they were outlawed.

Thousands of members, supporters and their top leaders are among the 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt and have been systematically tortured and sentenced to death.

It was due to this crackdown that Elmady fled to Saudi Arabia and then on to Canada in 2017. He was detained for two months in Vancouver and not given a battery for his hearing aid.

One of his lawyers, Washim Ahmed, says that during Elmady’s interrogation the CBSA accessed emails between him and his lawyer without his consent.

An 18 October 2017 transcript from Elmady’s detention-review hearing shows the counsel for the public safety minister saying the CBSA was seeking copies of a police summons issued against Elmady in Egypt.

A transcript from 25 October 2017 shows that a liaison officer was going to travel to Egypt to speak to a government minister about the Muslim Brotherhood.

The public safety minister’s counsel said he would be discreet and make limited enquiries.

Another of his lawyers, Naseem Mithoowani, is calling for increased oversight of the Canadian Border Services Agency.

Usually, Canadian authorities would not communicate with a government that is allegedly persecuting someone, Mithoowani told CTV News.

“I was hoping, over the last three years, that there would be justice and someone would understand my situation,” Elmady told CTV News.