(OTTAWA) The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a judge’s ruling that four Canadian men held in Syrian camps are eligible for Ottawa’s help to return home.
In a judgment released Wednesday, three appeals judges ruled that the federal government is not obligated by law to repatriate the men.
They thus overturn the decision rendered in January by Federal Court Judge Henry Brown. The latter ordered Ottawa to request the repatriation of the men as soon as it is reasonably possible to do so and to provide them with passports or emergency travel documents.
Judge Brown found that these Canadians also had the right to have a federal government official travel to Syria to help facilitate their release once their captors agreed to free them.
The Canadians are among many foreign nationals in Syrian camps and prisons run by Kurdish forces that have retaken the conflict-torn region from the extremist group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
The men include Jack Letts, whose parents John Letts and Sally Lane led a campaign to pressure Ottawa for help.