Give Montrealer stuck in Indian jail the Brenda Martin treatment: supporters

Jonathan Montpetit, THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL - The Conservative government should send an elected official to India for the appeal hearing of a Montrealer stewing in a violent prison, say supporters who fear for his safety.

Religious leaders rallying behind Saul Itzhayek want him to get the same treatment as Brenda Martin, the Canadian woman who has been stuck in a Mexican jail for two years without trial.

Two Conservative MPs flew to Mexico earlier this week to meet with Martin and push her case with Mexican officials.

Itzhayek's supporters are calling for a similar delegation to attend an Indian appeal hearing scheduled for March 25.

"We ask the government to send a representative from Ottawa, just like they sent (Secretary of State for Multiculturalism) Jason Kenney to Mexico," Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz told reporters.

"I think the (Indian) authorities would understand that this is a case with international ramifications... it would send an enormously powerful message that the Canadian government is extremely serious about this case."

Steinmetz, along with several rabbis, a Protestant minister and a Catholic priest faxed a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday asking him to ramp up efforts to free Itzhayek.

A spokesperson for Helena Guergis, the secretary of state responsible for consular affairs, immediately rejected the idea she visit Itzhayek next week.

"That certainly will not be possible," said Blair MacLean, without elaborating. He did not return calls for further comment.

Itzhayek, who has been detained for nearly 10 months, was handed a three-year jail sentence in October for entering the country on an expired visa, despite his claim he was entrapped by Indian police.

Concern about his safety rose last week after he narrowly avoided injury in a pair of explosions that rocked his prison.

He has reportedly not left his cell since two bombs killed a local gangster last Saturday.

Itzhayek's family fears he will be caught up in a prison gang war.

"He's holed himself up, he's under a self-imposed lockdown," said Itzhayek's sister, Sylvia. "Right now we're looking for an early release, that's the fastest way to get him out."

Former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who has been acting on Itzhayek's behalf, has pointed to a number of options for the Indian government to free the Montreal businessman without losing face.

Canadian diplomats have suggested the Indians pardon and deport Itzhayek.

As in Martin's case, Itzhayek's legal team was asked to prepare legal precedents looking at various executive resolutions.

But they remain focused on the March 25 appeal, which was ordered by the Bihar High Court during a bail hearing last month.

Itzhayek, 42, was in Nepal on business when he was arrested in May.

He claims he sent his driver into India to pick up some money that was being wired to him. Police stopped the driver at the border and seized documents that included Itzhayek's passport and visa.

Itzhayek has filed sworn statements that say Indian police offered him safe passage back into India to collect his documents but instead arrested him for entering the country illegally. He was allegedly asked to pay a bribe for his freedom.

Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier have both raised the case with their Indian counterparts.

© The Canadian Press, 2008