Harper Angry Diplomats Missed Start of Trial for Canadian

Josh Pringle
Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to know why there was no Canadian diplomat present at a recent court appearance for a Canadian man imprisoned in China.

Harper is insisting that Canadian diplomats in China attend future court proceedings

Senior Government Officials say diplomats in Beijing and Ottawa fumbled the ball when Huseyin Celil appeared in court last week.

Celil has been jailed at an unknown location in China for almost eight months for alleged ties to terror groups.

Canadian Finance Minister in China

China does not recognize his Canadian citizenship and Ottawa has been aggressively lobbying for his release. His family says he is being persecuted because he is a Muslim and a political dissident who fled his homeland in the 1990s.
Canada's campaign to have Celil released has angered Chinese officials, as did Canada's granting of honorary citizenship to the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.
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PM irked as diplomats miss activist's hearing

Government says Canadian diplomats in Beijing and consular officials in Ottawa fumbled the ball

JEFF SALLOT AND GEOFFREY YORK

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA AND BEIJING — Angered by what he believes is lack of attention to a serious human-rights case, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is demanding an explanation for why no Canadian diplomat was present at the recent court appearance of a Canadian man accused of terrorist activities.

Both Canadian diplomats in Beijing and consular officials in Ottawa fumbled the ball last week when Huseyin Celil appeared in a Chinese court, a senior government official said Monday night in Ottawa.

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Harper wants action on Burlington man in Chinese prison

The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The prime minister is angry and wants to know why there was no Canadian diplomat present at a recent court appearance for a Burlington man imprisoned in China.

A published report today quotes a senior government official saying that diplomats in both Beijing and Ottawa fumbled the ball when Huseyin Celil appeared in court last week.

Stephen Harper is insisting that Canadian diplomats in China attend future court proceedings, which opened Friday in the provincial city of Urumqi.

Diplomats say they have been frustrated by the fact that China will not recognize Celil's Canadian citizenship.

But the official says a Canadian representative should have been present for the opening of the trial as a signal of how seriously the Harper government is taking the case.

Celil, a former imam at a mosque in Hamilton, has been jailed at an unknown location in China for almost eight months for alleged ties to terror groups.