Canada kicks out 5 Libyan diplomats

Five Libyan diplomats working in Ottawa have one week to get out of the country amid fears they were trying to intimidate Libyan citizens in Canada.

The officials have been declared persona non grata, a news release distributed Tuesday evening by the Department of Foreign Affairs says.

"The activities carried out in Canada by the five Libyan diplomats are considered inappropriate and inconsistent with normal diplomatic functions," the release says.

"Canada has not severed diplomatic relations with Libya, but we have suspended the operations of the embassy in Tripoli. The Libyan Embassy in Ottawa remains open."

== == == ==

Ottawa-based representatives of the Libyan National Transitional Council called in March for Canada to expel Libya's diplomats.

One day after the British government expelled five Libyan diplomats from the U.K. for safety reasons, Sufyan Maghur urged Ottawa to do the same.

"They call themselves diplomats, but they don't really do anything outside of the listening, watching, taping or scaring the Libyan community," Maghur said of the Libyan diplomats. "There's no real diplomatic issues that they deal with."

== == == ==

"They will cut their student visas, they will deport them right away. At times, we heard reports of bribes," she said.

Baset Elzagallai, a student at the University of Western Ontario, was told his scholarship would be cancelled. He showed up at the demonstration anyway, saying he wanted the diplomats to renounce the Libyan regime.

"Their duty actually is established from the legitimacy of the people, not of a dictator," he said.

Ihab al-Mismari, the only diplomat to have defected, said his wife was recently visited and confronted by a driver working for the embassy, who called al-Mismari a traitor.

When his wife threatened to call 911, the chauffeur drove away, but also left a letter warning that al-Mismari could be charged with treason.

========================

Full story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/05/17/pol-libyans-expelled.html