Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Doctor's extradition to Canada iffy: expert
Physician charged with assault will likely walk free
Dr. Walid Abdelhamid
It was a year-long manhunt that culminated with a Winnipeg doctor behind bars in Greece. But an expert on extradition said the chances are slim that Dr. Walid Abdelhamid will return to Canada to face charges that he sexually assaulted a young patient at Winnipeg's Children's Hospital last summer.
Gary Botting, a B.C. lawyer, warned that Abdelhamid might walk free from a Greek jail just three months from now.
City police confirmed recently that airport security in Greece had arrested the Libyan-born doctor after he fled from Canada while out on bail. Abdelhamid was charged in June 2009 with sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual exploitation in connection with the alleged assault of a teenage boy in his hospital room.
Botting, who's published four books on extradition law, said due to a "woefully out-of-date" treaty between Greece and the United Kingdom from 1912, Canadian authorities will have an uphill battle getting Abdelhamid back to Canada.
"There are too many loopholes," said Botting.
"Canada has to update its whole treaty system when it comes to extradition."
He said part of the legal trouble is due to language in the 1912 treaty that states "rape" is one of the serious crimes that warrants extradition. However, the nature of the allegations against Abdelhamid might not meet those requirements.
Botting also pointed to a section of the treaty that states, "if a fugitive criminal who has been arrested has not been surrendered and conveyed away within three months after his arrest... he shall be set at liberty."
That means Abdelhamid could be walking free in Greece by the start of 2011.
"(He could be) walking free in Greece, and walking free to go back to Libya to catch a boat across the Mediterranean," he said.
Abdelhamid's father is a high-ranking Libyan government official based in Austria.
Abdelhamid had been working in Canada on a training visa, but was suspended when the alleged assault in Winnipeg came to light.
The Crown opposed Abdelhamid's release and argued he was a flight risk, but provincial court Judge Patti Umpherville ruled days later that Abdelhamid could remain in the community if he followed conditions such as turning over his passport and keeping a nightly curfew.
Weeks later, he disappeared.
Investigators had even warned Canadian airlines about Abdelhamid in case he tried to leave the country, but they were unsuccessful in preventing him from leaving.
Botting said any move to extradite Abdelhamid to Canada from Greece is further complicated by his Libyan citizenship.
"Greece has the right to send Dr. Abdelhamid back to Libya, his home country, instead of surrendering him to Canada. Libya can make representations to Greece to this effect. Given that Dr. Abdelhamid's father is a high-ranking Libyan official, it is quite likely that this might happen.
"Canada would have no right to complain, because it agreed to this process in the treaty," Botting said.
He said Canada also has no extradition agreement with Libya.
Federal officials will handle Abdelhamid's extradition process, although a provincial Crown attorney will pursue the criminal charges against him if he is ever returned.
Federal justice officials did not comment on Abdelhamid's case.
"Extradition requests made to and from Canada are confidential state-to-state communications," a department spokeswoman said.
Negotiations between Greek and Canadian officials in the 1990s never led to new rules around extradition, Botting said.
The victim's family has not commented on Abdelhamid's arrest in Greece, but they expressed outrage after the doctor fled Canada while out on bail last year.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 10, 2010 A5
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