Abdelrazik Cleared from UN Terror List

An eight-year-long struggle to have his good name restored ends in victory.

Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Montreal man caught in diplomatic purgatory for the past decade, has been taken off of the United Nation's terrorist blacklist. Abdelrazik's troubles began back in 2003 when he went home to Sudan to visit his ailing mother. He has also said that he left Canada due to harassment from CSIS agents, who claimed he was connected to al-Qaeda Ahmed Ressam, the Millennium bomber. While there, he was arrested without charges and put in jail, allegedly on order from the Canadian government. Abdelrazik says he was tortured while in prison. His passport expired while there, and after being freed from jail, was forced to live at the Canadian embassy in Khartoum until 2009. In 2006, the U.S. put Abdelrazik on their terrorist watchlist, as did the United Nations Security Council. While CSIS cleared Abdelrazik of any wrongdoing two years ago, he was still on the UN list until just this week. Being on the list had prevented him from holding a job or travelling, despite there never being any evidence beyond the circumstantial to hold him in custody.