Canadian jailed in Ethiopia says abandoned by Ottawa

Bashir Makhtal, 42, is serving a life sentence in Ethiopia.

Source: the star. 

Published On Thu Jan 20 2011

Debra Black Staff Reporter

A Canadian citizen imprisoned for life in an Ethiopian jail has berated Ottawa for being “reluctant to save me from such unjust and inhuman treatment” by the African nation.

Bashir Makhtal, in a letter obtained by the Star, describes his anger at being left to languish in jail and Canada’s lack of action, adding that the Ethiopian government has used him “to put (the) Canadian government to the test.”

The letter, which was smuggled out of an Ethiopian jail in early December, will be released at a news conference in Ottawa Thursday — the anniversary of Makhtal’s rendition from Kenya to Ethiopia.

“I am writing to tell my fellow Canadian citizens that I am a hostage for an African country which receives millions of dollars of the taxes you paid from our government as humanitarian aid.”

Former Torontonian Makhtal, 42, is serving a life sentence in a prison in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, after being charged with multiple counts of terrorism for allegedly being a ringleader with the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist group that was outlawed by the Ethiopians.

In an ironic twist of fate, the Ethiopian government has signed a peace deal with the group and many of its imprisoned members have been released from prison. But Makhtal remains in jail. “It is clear that I was arrested not because I am ONLF, but because of my grandfather’s role in Ethiopian politics.”

Makhtal’s grandfather, Makhtal Dahir, was one of the co-founders of the organization.

Makhtal’s letter paints a picture of a disillusioned and cynical man who is tired of being caught up in the geopolitics of Ethiopia.

“I am an innocent civilian on the death row … I am guilt(y) by birth,” he writes.

Makhtal had returned to Africa in 2002 to run a used-clothing business. He was arrested on the border of Somalia and Kenya, after fleeing Mogadishu and the fall of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006.

Eventually taken to Nairobi and jailed, Makhtal was supposed to appear before the Kenyan courts. But a day before he was to make his appearance, Makhtal was taken in shackles to the airport and rendered to Ethiopia. He wasn’t alone — dozens of foreign nationals were arrested as well and also rendered to the African nation. They have all since been released.

“In a maximum-security prison, I said goodbye to the last foreign inmates after their governments helped them get freed,” he writes.

“I share a room with real criminals, rapists and murderers with whom I share the same fate — death. I lost my optimism that one day I will walk free, and my dream to join my beautiful wife, a heartbroken, innocent lady is not there any more. I am in mourning for my previous free days and my stolen future.”

This is the third time Makhtal has managed to get a note out of his prison cell. The first time was to alert his family he was alive; the second was a letter in November 2007 that detailed the circumstances of his arrest, his detainment in Kenya and his rendition to Ethiopia. In that letter he pleaded for the Canadian government to fight for his freedom.