Saudi embassy reportedly helps national accused of sex assault flee Canada
Canadian authorities are on the hunt for a Saudi Arabian national accused of sexually assaulting a Canadian woman after he failed to appear in court — but the man isn’t feared dead, or even missing.
Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi was bailed out by the Saudi embassy to the tune of $37,500 USD, and in turn forfeited his passport to the Cape Breton Regional Police, according to local newspaper The Chronicle Herald.
That forfeiture should have made it nearly impossible for Alzoabi to flee unless Saudi Arabia provided him with Saudi travel documents, according to the paper, and Canadian immigration attorney Lee Cohen told the paper that the Saudis “have done this before.”
Authorities believe Alzoabi fled the country thanks to a sheriff’s department document called an affidavit of attempted service, prosecutor Peter Harrison told the paper.
The document explained that a warrant couldn’t be served to Alzoabi on Dec. 8, 2018, reading, “Spoke to counsel, Mr Ianetti, stated he fled the country sometime ago. Media reports also indicate he had left the country.”
Alzoabi, a student at Cape Breton University facing charges of sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement, said in an audio-only FaceTime call with the Chronicle Herald that he was “probably not” in Canada, adding, “I can’t tell you that.”
During the call, a woman could be heard laughing and speaking in English in the background, but nothing else provided any evidence of where Alzoabi had fled to or if anyone had helped him.
Alzoabi did tell the paper that he won’t return to Cape Breton because he thinks the charges against him are “unfair.”
“Everybody’s against me just because I’m a [racial expletive] and foreign student despite the fact that we boosted so much money to that island of Canada.”
The 28-year-old’s lawyer was quoted as saying his client had fled Canada, according to the Associated Press.
The Saudi Arabian Embassy did not respond to requests for comment from the Chronicle Herald or AP.
Alzoabi marks another dent in the deteriorating relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia.
On Friday, Canada granted asylum to Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, an 18-year-old Saudi teen girl who fled her home country after escaping her abusive family. The ordeal resulted in al-Qunun being placed “under the care” of the UN while her asylum requests were processed.
Last August, the Saudi kingdom expelled Canada’s ambassador and withdrew its own ambassador after the Canadian foreign ministry tweeted support for the release of women’s rights activists arrested in Saudi Arabia.
Asked by the Chronicle Herald where he plans to go next, Alzoabi said, “I don’t know, maybe Saudi Arabia.”
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