Family and supporters of Bashir Makhtal, a Canadian jailed for life in Ethiopia, are denouncing Prime Minister Stephen Harper for inviting Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to the G20 summit in Toronto.

“We should not allow the Prime Minister of Ethiopia to come to this country,” said Said Maktal, who has spent the past three and a half years campaigning on behalf of his cousin.

Said Maktal and his group want Mr. Harper to rescind the invitation or, if Mr. Zenawi attends the G20, they want him to first release Mr. Makhtal.

On June 11, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada (CAIR-CAN) and Amnesty International held a press conference on Parliament Hill to draw attention to what they describe as Prime Minister Zenawi’s abuse of human rights and international law and to demand that Mr. Harper inform Mr. Zenawi that his invitation to the G20 meetings is conditional on an invitation for two; for both himself and Bashir Makhtal.

However, Ottawa has said it will not make the June 25 visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to the summit contingent on the release of 41-year-old Bashir Makhtal.

Transport Minister John Baird, who visited Ethiopia earlier this year to try to win Makhtal's release, said the G8 is "an opportunity to make our case again" for Mr. Makhtal's release. Mr. Baird said he thinks "constructive and productive" engagement with the Ethiopian government is the key to winning Mr. Makhtal's freedom.

Mr. Makhtal was convicted last year on charges that he supported the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an Ethiopian separatist movement. He was among some 150 people detained by Kenyan forces on the border with Somalia as they fled invading Ethiopian troops in early 2007, and was initially accused of supporting the hardline Islamist movement in Somalia.

For background on the Bashir Makhtal story, read the November 2009 issue of the Muslim Link, available at www.muslimlink.ca