 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | August 2007 
Canadian Wanted in Deadly Mexico Prison Break Faces Extradition, Fears Torture
 Phil Couvrette - CanWest News
go to original
| | Police booking photo of Regent Boily, 62. Boily had served six months of a 14-year sentence in Mexico for drug trafficking when he was involved in an escape, which left a prison guard dead. |
A Quebec man wanted in connection with the shooting death of a Mexican prison guard in 1999 could be extradited any day after losing his last bid to stay in Canada, the man's attorney and sister said this week.
Regent Boily, 62, who moved to Mexico 13 years ago, had served six months of a 14-year sentence for drug trafficking when he was involved in an escape, which left a prison guard dead. Boily was arrested near Gatineau, Que. in 2005 and has been fighting extradition ever since over fears he may be tortured if sent back to Mexico.
Boily was dealt a fatal blow to his attempt to stay in Canada after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture withdrew its support for him.
Marjolaine Boily, Regent’s sister, said Tuesday a Quebec prisonmate who befriended him had alerted her Regent had been told he had spent his last days in his Gatineau,_Que. cell.
Boily said Regent was in a state of panic and tears when he learned he lost the support of the UN on Monday. She said the world body and Canadian government let her brother down.
“It’s the fault of the Canadian government,” she said between tears. “I also blame Geneva (the UN) which didn’t want to read his file and take care of him.”
“My brother was tortured (in a Mexican prison) and he shouldn’t be sent there,” she said. “Why does the government not understand this?”
Regent’s attorney Christian Deslauriers said it was a matter of when, not if his client would be extradited. “It’s imminent,” he said. “He’s returning to the lion’s den.”
He said the UN committee on torture, which initially asked Canada to put the extradition on hold, was ultimately “pressured” by the Canadian government to drop its support so Boily could be extradited before a looming Aug. 20 deadline. If Regent failed to be extradited before then the entire extradition process would have had to start from scratch, he said. In July, the Supreme Court turned down a request to review Boily’s case, leaving authorities 45 days to extradite him.
Ironically Aug. 20 is when Mexican President Felipe Calderon joins Stephen Harper and George W. Bush in Montebello, Que. for the three amigos summit.
“One wonders why the government supported this process, what I find shocking is that there’s a Canadian national who’s been extradited with no criminal history in Canada... he’s a good citizen and Canada isn’t defending him,”_Deslauriers said. “He should have been helped, and instead we fought to send him back.” Deslauriers said Boily had nothing to do with the guard’s murder, was involved in the escape against his will — during a prisoner transfer — and later the two other prisoners involved demanded payment from him for being freed.
Deslauriers says fears Boily could be tortured are justified because of what he called Mexico’s well-documented cases of torture in general, and specifically because Boily had previously been tortured in the country.
“The risk he faces is very personal because those responsible (for torturing him) were never punished,” he said. “My client is extremely fearful of returning, he expects to be mistreated.”
Regent has written a book “The nightmare of a Quebecer,” from prison, which describes his ordeal |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us