(Ottawa) Four Canadians detained in Syria are asking the Supreme Court of Canada to reconsider their request for a hearing that could allow them to be released from Syrian jails.
The Supreme Court refused last November to hear their challenge to a judgment by the Federal Court of Appeal, which concluded that the Canadian government was not obliged, under the law, to repatriate them.
In an opinion filed with the nation’s highest court, lawyers for the four men say extremely rare circumstances warrant reconsideration of their application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
As usual, the court gave no reasons for its refusal to review the case.
The four Canadians detained in Syria are among many foreign nationals held in dilapidated prisons run by Kurdish forces, who wrested this war-ravaged region from the Islamic State armed group.
In the recently filed Supreme Court opinion, lawyers for the four men say there is a “constitutional imperative” for the highest court to agree to hear a case when the evidence reveals well-founded issues of public importance. on serious human rights violations.