A Canadian citizen who has been detained in Ethiopia for the past 10 months without being charged is suing the government there and its officials for “violations of international law, assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment.”
The statement of claim, which was filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice late last week, names Workineh Gebeyehu, the head of the Ethiopian police, and Taadese Masaret, the head of the prison where Bashir Makhtal is being detained.
The suit claims that Ethiopia “is illegally holding” Makhtal and is “subjecting him to torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment.” According to the statement of claim, Makhtal has been held “incommunicado” for more than nine months, and he has not been charged with any offence. Nor has he been brought before a court of law.
His rights to legal counsel and adequate access to the consular protection of Canada have also been denied, the suit says.
“He has been denied his fundamental rights under international, Ethiopian and Canadian law,” according to the suit.
The suit adds Makhtal was also “subject to frequent interrogations during which he has been subjected to torture and cruel and inhumane treatment. He was also forced to videotape a false confession under the coercion of the Ethiopian authorities. The false confession was broadcast on the television in Ethiopia.”
The suit also alleges that Makhtal’s family, many of whom remain in Ethiopia, have been detained, arrested and subjected to torture and coercion to force them to implicate him.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit has been proven in a court of law.
Officials at the Ethiopian embassy were served yesterday afternoon with the lawsuit, but they were not available for comment.
Makhtal’s lawyer, Lorne Waldman, his cousin, Said Maktal, and Amnesty International held a news conference in Ottawa yesterday detailing the $1.5 million civil suit.
But it is not clear whether the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will hear the case because of the State Immunity Act, which shields sovereign states from liability here. Waldman, however, said he will try to convince the court that because Makhtal is a Canadian citizen and is still being psychologically tortured he should be able to hold Ethiopia accountable in a Canadian court of law.
Makhtal was rendered to Ethiopia in January after being detained for three weeks in Nairobi by Kenyan officials.
According to the lawsuit, Makhtal had been travelling in Somalia, selling used clothes, when the Ethiopian Army invaded that country. He has been held in the Central Investigation Detention Centre in Addis Ababa ever since.
It is believed Makhtal was of interest to the Ethiopian government because of his grandfather’s connection to the Ogaden separatist movement.
But there has been no evidence of Makhtal belonging to that or any of the warring factions in Ethiopia, his family says.