Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday that he raised the case of the Canadian citizen held in Egypt with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “We are always defending Canadians facing problems all over the world,” said Trudeau during a press conference in Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of the African Union summit. Trudeau added: “Yes, I discussed with President al-Sisi the issue of the Canadian citizen detained in Egypt and asked him to release him.”
Egyptian authorities arrested Canadian engineer Yasser el-Baz at Cairo Airport a year ago near the end of his business trip to Egypt. El-Baz’s daughter confirmed on Facebook that security services at Cairo Airport detained her father while he was leaving Egypt for Canada, adding that the last thing she heard about him was that he is being detained by the Egyptian State Security Service. El-Baz’s daughter asserts that her father has not done anything wrong and that he has no political affiliation whatsoever, adding that he is suffering and needs medical help and to return to his family.