The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2
By fax: 613-941-6900
June 11, 2010
Dear Prime Minister,
We have written to you previously, and to other members of your government, about the troubling case of Bashir Makhtal. Mr. Makhtal, a Canadian citizen of Ogadeni origin, has been imprisoned in Ethiopia for close to 3 ½ years now where he has experienced a range of very serious human rights violations.
We are writing at this time in light of the invitation you personally have extended to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to attend this month’s G20 Summit in Toronto. We urge that you make it clear to Prime Minister Zenawi that you expect Mr. Makhtal to be released and be able to return to Canada by the time Prime Minister Zenawi travels here. In effect, you should stress that the invitation to come to Canada is an invitation for two: the Prime Minister and Mr. Makhtal.
OTTAWA — The Harper government will press Ethiopia's leader at the G8 summit this month to release a Canadian it believes is unjustly imprisoned there, The Canadian Press has learned.
But Ottawa will not make the June 25 visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to the G8 summit in Ontario's cottage country contingent on the release of 41-year-old Bashir Makhtal.
"It's certainly an opportunity to make our case again, which we will continue to do," Transport Minister John Baird told The Canadian Press in an interview Thursday.
Amnesty International and Makhtal's relatives plan to demand on Friday in a press conference on Parliament Hill that Zenawi not be allowed to set foot on Canadian soil unless he brings Makhtal with him.
