Montrealer facing beheading pleads with PM for help
Last Updated: Saturday, June 27, 2009 | 8:43 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Mohamed Kohail was sentenced in Saudi Arabia to a public beheading after a schoolyard brawl that led to a death. (Canadian Press)A Montreal man facing beheading in Saudi Arabia has written directly to Stephen Harper, asking the prime minister to personally intervene in his case.
Mohamed Kohail's family members gave the letter to Trade Minister Stockwell Day when they met in Jidda on Saturday and relatives asked Day to deliver it to Harper.
In it, Kohail tells Harper he feels his government has let him down.
"I am currently spending more time in jail than William Sampson although my case does not have any political implications," Kohail wrote.
"Yet I feel my government had failed to help me in every simple legal and councillor [consular] procedure, which led me to the fate I am facing today, beheading by sword."
Sampson, who holds dual British-Canadian citizenship, was imprisoned and tortured in Saudi Arabia, where he was arrested in 2001, accused of involvement in a string of bombings in Riyadh. He was among seven foreigners granted amnesty and freed in 2003.
In a statement, Day said he gave the Kohail family assurances that Ottawa "is pursuing all avenues to assist him."
But those assurances weren't enough for Kohail, who has written a previous letter that never reached Harper.
In his latest letter, Kohail asks the prime minister to personally contact Saudi King Abdullah.
"I hope that my letter will reach you this time, and you will take 10 minutes of your time and contact the Saudi king, his Majesty King Abdullah, to intervene and get me out of jail."
While Day met with the family, he didn't go to the prison where Kohail is being held.
The minister was in Saudi Arabia as part of a business trip to the Middle East.
But Liberal MP Dan McTeague said Day should have met with Mohamed Kohail at the prison, and should have been more forceful with Saudi officials over the case.
"Mr. Day has had two opportunities to travel to Saudi Arabia, suggested he's met with the right people to raise this," said McTeague.
"He ought to have visited Mr. Kohail and he ought to have been very forceful in the concerns that he and Mr. Kohail have raised about . . . allegations of torture."
Day's office said the cases of Mohamed Kohail and his brother Sultan were also raised by the minister during bilateral meetings, including one with Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, president of the Saudi Human Rights Commission.
Mohamed Kohail, 24, was sentenced to death after being convicted in the death of a man during an after-school brawl in Jidda in 2007.
The brawl apparently started when Sultan was accused of insulting a girl.
The brothers have repeatedly said they were acting in self-defence and were not involved in inflicting the fatal injuries during the fight, which involved dozens of teenagers.
Sultan, 18, was initially sentenced as an accessory to a year in jail and 200 lashes. The victim's family then appealed, resulting in a probable new trial.
Both brothers have claimed their innocence and say the Saudi judicial system has not afforded them a fair trial.
