MONTREAL - A decision by Saudi Arabia's high court to order a review of the death sentence imposed on a Canadian man should spur Ottawa to step up efforts to obtain his freedom, a Liberal MP said Tuesday.
"It's certainly bought time but it doesn't necessarily bode positive for Mohamed at this point," Liberal consular affairs critic Dan McTeague said in a telephone interview. "It just means more of a delay."
Mohamed Kohail and Muhanna Ezzat, a Jordanian friend, were convicted last year in the death of Munzer Haraki, 19. Both men were sentenced to death by public beheading by sword.
Kohail and Ezzat have always maintained their innocence.
Kohail's younger brother Sultan was also convicted in the incident and was originally sentenced to a year in jail and 200 lashes. The victim's family appealed the sentence and he now faces retrial.
The brothers claim they were not given a fair trial by the Saudi judicial system. While they were involved in a melee, they have repeatedly said they were acting in self-defence and were not involved in inflicting the fatal wounds during the schoolyard brawl in January 2007.
A gang of 15 men -- some armed with knives and clubs -- chased down the Kohails and Ezzat during a settling of accounts stemming from an alleged insult Sultan made to a female cousin of Haraki's, an accusation Sultan has denied.
The Kohails have said the gang leaned against a waist-high fence, which toppled and pinned Haraki underneath. He died later of internal injuries.
The death sentence for Mohamed Kohail has bounced back and forth between lower courts and the Saudi appeal court before it landed at the Supreme Judicial Council.
McTeague, a longtime lobbyist on the Kohails' behalf, noted that in the past the council has been "known to rubber-stamp these decisions. Well, this time, they didn't."
"We're back to where we were several months ago," he said.
"How soon that court responds, and what decision it makes, remains to be seen," he added, pointing out that "the sentence remains but has not been confirmed by the higher courts or the supreme council."
The Kohail brothers, who are of Palestinian origin, have been Canadian citizens since 2005. The family relocated to Saudi Arabia from Canada in 2006, but always intended to return to Canada.
The Foreign Affairs Department has been working on the case and the federal government has made representations to Saudi officials to get the Kohails freed.
