Ottawa looking into case where Saudi fled sex charges after embassy posted bail
HALIFAX — Federal officials are looking into how a Saudi man may have fled Canada while facing sexual assault charges, as legal experts suspect the Middle Eastern kingdom’s embassy played a key role.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Sherbrooke, Que., on Thursday evening that it’s cause for concern when anyone skips bail while facing serious criminal charges, and said, “in that particular case we are looking into it.”
Lee Cohen, a veteran Halifax immigration lawyer, has said the likeliest scenario is that the Saudi embassy provided Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi with travel documents to leave, as his passport was being held while the 28-year-old awaited trial in Sydney, N.S.
Alzoabi’s whereabouts remain a mystery, but a court document says a sheriff unsuccessfully tried to locate Alzoabi on Dec. 8, and quotes his lawyer at the time as saying the young man had “fled the country some time ago.”