Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian man living in exile in Sudan who the government has been told to return home, is a member of a Montreal terrorist cell and has close ties to senior al Qaeda leadership, a new United Nations Security Council document alleges.
In the document posted Monday on the UN Security Council terrorist blacklist website, it's asserted that Abdelrazik trained at an al Qaeda camp and has provided administrative and logistical support to the terrorist network.
"[Abdelrazik] was a member of a cell in Montreal, Canada, whose members met in al Qaeda's Khalden training camp in Afghanistan," the document alleges.
It adds that Abdelrazik recruited and advised new operatives headed for paramilitary training at Khalden, and that he had told at least one individual that he was "personally acquainted with Osama bin Laden."
None of the allegations are new and echo those that the U.S. has levelled against Abdelrazik since 2006, when it added him to the UN Security Council's 1267 terrorist blacklist.
Like previous allegations, none of the ones detailed in the short document contain specifics or cite sources for the information.
Abdelrazik, 47, has denied any involvement in extremism or any association with al Qaeda.
The document's publication comes only days after a federal court ordered that Abdelrazik be allowed to return to Canada. Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn said Abdelrazik's constitutional rights had been breached by Ottawa's refusal to allow him to return home.
Zinn's June 4 ruling called for to be repatriated within 30 days. The government says it will not appeal the ruling but it remains unclear when Abdelrazik will return.
Yavar Hameed, Abdelrazik's lawyer in Canada, said the timing of the posting of the UN document was suspicious.
"It's highly irregular and I don't believe it is coincidental that the UN posted this one on the eve of Mr. Abdelrazik's return," The Globe and Mail reports Hameed saying.
"It smacks of smear by association; if there was anything criminal or substantive in terms of terrorist activity then I think our security services or those of the United States would have launched a prosecution."
Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen with family in Montreal, has been in forced exile in Sudan since 2003, after he went to visit his ailing mother. He was arrested by Sudanese officials there because of allegations he had ties to bin Laden.
No evidence supporting those allegations ever materialized and Abdelrazik was released without charge. But by then, Abdelrazik's passport had expired.
Although both CSIS and the RCMP have formally confirmed they have no reason to support his continued UN listing as an al Qaeda member, the Canadian government continued to refuse him a new passport so he could return.
Abdelrazik has been living in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for the better part of the past year as his case made its way through Canadian courts.
