July 28 - From the National Post Canadian held in Lebanon:

A Canadian citizen has been detained for the past three weeks in a Beirut prison in Lebanon without any formal charges, CanWest News Service has learned.

Bruce Balfour, a 52-year-old Calgarian, was stopped on his arrival at the Beirut airport on July 10 and brought to the Rumy prison, where family and friends say he is being held without formal charges.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said a staff member from the Canadian Embassy in Lebanon visited Mr. Balfour in prison on July 24 and a diplomatic note has been sent to the Lebanese government requesting further information about his detention.

Marie-Christiane Lilkoff said the Canadian government is trying to find out the reasons for Mr. Balfour's detention. She did not know whether there had been any delay by the Lebanese government in informing the Canadian Embassy of Mr. Balfour's detention, as is normally done in these cases.

[...]

Mr. Balfour's sister, Laura Mackenzie, said the Canadian consulate in Beirut was not made aware of Mr. Balfour's detention until 10 days after the fact when "an informant" in Lebanon contacted friends in Canada about his situation.

In a letter written July 22 to the Canadian ambassador in Lebanon, Mr. Balfour says he was arrested at the airport because Lebanese computerized records indicated he had once visited Israel.

You should read the article in its entirety because there are differing opinions as to how effective the Canadian government has been in this case before jumping to any conclusions, but it is very troubling that we don't know on what charges or suspicions he is being held.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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