The Case of Bashir Makhtal

September 10, 2009 by lorne

Overview of the Case
Commencing on or about January 22, 2007 Mr. Makhtal has been held illegally first in Kenya and now in Ethiopia at the detention centre in Addis Ababa Ethiopia where he is being held incommunicado and without charge or trial, without access to a lawyer and without access to Canadian consular assistance.

Mr. Makhtal was first arrested at the Kenya Somalia border in December 2006 and was transferred to Nairobi. He was held in Nairobi until January 21, 2007 when he was transferred illegally and without legal authorization on a private plane from Nairobi to Somalia and from there to Ethiopia.

He has been held in detention incommunicado without access to counsel family or consular officials for over one year in a notorious detention centre where torture is known to occur. He has been forced to video tape a false confession. He has been denied medical attention.

Mr. Makhtal is a citizen of Canada. He was born in Ethiopia and left Ethiopia when he was about 11 years old, travelling to Somalia, where he resided. He eventually made his way to Italy, where he applied for refugee protection and was granted status as a Convention Refugee and was ultimately resettled in Canada in 1991. Due to his fear of persecution at the hands of the Ethiopian government. Despite the change in government since he left Ethiopia many years ago he still fears persecution there due to the ongoing conflict between the Government of Ethiopia and the people of the Ogaden region where Mr. Makhtal was born.

He lived, studied and worked in Canada for about 10 years and became a Canadian citizen in 1994. He decided to return to Kenya in 2001. He began running a business selling used clothing in Kenya. The business required him to travel extensively in the region. In Kenya, was married to a Kenyan citizen and was residing in Nairobi. His business took him frequently to Somalia. In December 2006 while on business, he was detained at the Kenya-Somalia border when he attempted to re-enter Kenya. He was detained with a large group of people who had fled Somalia as a result of the intervention by the Ethiopian forces. He was transferred to Nairobi where he was held in detention. He retained a lawyer there, who filed an application for habeas corpus.

The application was set to be heard on Monday , January 22 when he was illegally and surreptitiously removed from Kenya without due process on January 21st and transferred on a chartered flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This transfer contravenes Kenya�s international obligations.

Mr. Makhtal has been detained in Addis Ababa since January 2007; that is for a period of more than one year. His family members retained a lawyer in Addis Ababa to try to obtain access to him but the lawyer was unable to do so. Indeed, the Ethiopian authorities told the lawyer that they had no record of Mr. Makhtal�s detention. Canadian consular officials also sought access to him and were refused this access. They were finally given acces to him in July of 2008. he was given access to a lawyer in late 2008.

Mr Makhtal was formally charged with an offence early in 2009. He has been subject to a trial before the notoriously unfair judicial authorities in Ethiopia. He was found guilty of being a member of the Ogaden National Liberation Front. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He has appealed the sentence. In Canada the John Baird a senior Minister in the Government of Prime Minister Harper has championed the case and has promised to work on Bashir's behalf. All observers agree that the trial was unfair and the evidence did not support a guilty verdict. Bashir's treatment at the hands of the Ethiopian authorities is in flagrant violation of international law. International law requires that Mr. Makhtal not be subjected to arbitrary detention, that he be given consular access and access to a lawyer, that he be allowed to know the reason for his detention and that he have a right to challenge that detention before a fair and impartial tribunal that follows adequate standards of due process. Mr. Makhtal was denied all of these rights. .

Given the documentary evidence that suggests that persons held in incommunicado detention in Ethiopia are at grave risk of torture there is a serious risk of torture that Mr. Makhtal was tortured.

Mr. Makhtal's family has called on the Canadian government to protest the actions of the Ethiopian government at the highest levels.

Please send an email to Prime Minister Stephen Harper at pm@pm.gc.ca calling on him to intervene immediately to save Bashir Makhtal and to bring him back to Canada as soon as possible .

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