A member of the legal team for Abousfian Abdelrazik, the Canadian man who has been exiled in Sudan for six years, has boarded a plane in hopes of bringing his client home.
Yavar Hameed has boarded a plane bound for Khartoum, where his client and former terror suspect has been living in the Canadian Embassy since last year.
Prior to his departure, Hameed said he had concerns about a U.S. official who questioned his client at the embassy in Khartoum on Wednesday.
"It seemed to be something about his condition in the embassy. That's the full extent of it," Hameed said. "I don't know, first of all, why a U.S. official, who has never historically spoken to my client, is coming to the embassy. I also don't know how at ease my client would be to fully disclose those details to me from where he is at this point."
"I'm concerned that that kind of interview should not be prolonged," Hameed added.
Hameed said the government had paid for Abdelrazik's plane ticket.
The timetable of Hameed's trip to Sudan is not being made public at the request of the federal government, Khalid Elgazzar, another member of Abdelrazik's legal team, told CTV.ca in a brief phone interview on Wednesday afternoon.
Hameed will be accompanied by a Foreign Affairs official on his trip to Sudan.
Earlier this month, Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn ruled that Ottawa violated Abdelrazik's Charter rights by refusing to allow him to come home and ordered the government to take steps to bring him back to Canada within 30 days.
A short time later, the Conservative government said it would comply with the order to bring Abdelrazik home.
If all goes according to plan, Abdelrazik will land in Toronto at Pearson International Airport late Saturday afternoon.
A Saturday evening welcome rally is planned for Abdelrazik in Montreal, where some of his family still lives.
Abdelrazik, who is now in his late 40s, has not been able to return home to see his family since 2003, the year he went back to his native country to visit his ailing mother.
Back then, he was arrested on suspicion of having links to terrorism, but was released and never charged.
Abdelrazik has said he was tortured, though Canada says it did not know about the alleged abuse.
The federal government then refused to allow him to return to Canada, even though the RCMP and CSIS cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Abdelrazik remains on a United Nations terror watch list. And a document recently posted on the UN Security Council terrorist blacklist website alleges he has been closely tied to senior al Qaeda members.
When the courts ruled in Abdelrazik's favour earlier this month, Hameed said his client was cautiously optimistic, but "until he sets foot on Canadian soil he's not going to fully believe the impact of this decision."
Paul Dewar, the NDP's foreign affairs critic, said he once thought Abdelrazik would never be able to return home to Canada.
"We're very optimistic that finally -- finally -- a Canadian citizen will be allowed to come home to where he belongs."
With files from The Canadian Press
