A Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) patch is seen on an officer in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019. An Egyptian refugee claimant in Montreal says the Canadian government is deporting him to face a death sentence at the hands of the Egyptian legal system. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
OTTAWA – An Egyptian refugee claimant in Montreal says the Canadian government is deporting him to face a death sentence at the hands of the Egyptian legal system.
Ezzat Gouda has been ordered to return to Egypt by Nov. 1, despite claims that he will be persecuted and killed in Egypt because of his political affiliations in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolution.
Gouda had already been arrested without charges several times by the time he helped establish the Freedom and Justice Party, which was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group and came to power following the country’s 2012 elections.
In 2013, Egypt’s army chief seized power in a military coup against the elected party’s government, and since then, Egyptian authorities have arrested thousands of the party’s members and Muslim Brotherhood supporters after labelling them as terrorists.
Gouda says he showed Canadian officials court documents that prove he has been sentenced to death in Egypt, but was told they too vague and insufficient for his refugee claim to be accepted.
He was denied a visa to Canada last year and instead entered the country at the unofficial Roxham Road crossing between Canada and the United States in March 2022.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2023.
