Amar Wala
Meeting Mahjoub
In early 2009, two years after I finished my short film The Good Son, I heard something that stung me in quite the same way as the sting that inspired that film. I heard that Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub, a father of 2 who spent nearly a decade behind bars as a terror suspect, without charge or open evidence, had ASKED to be returned to prison.
Mr. Mahjoub had been released from jail and placed under house arrest in February 2007. He and his family were to live under “strict conditions”, which included cameras in their home, search and seizure without a warrant, and being followed by CBSA agents on family outings. At the time it was perceived by many, including myself, that these house-arrest conditions while severe, were a vast improvement from prison. We were wrong.
In March 2009, Mr. Mahjoub asked the courts to put him back in jail, saying that the house-arrest was too damaging to his family. The reason I found this so unbelievable is that Mr. Mahjoub’s experience in prison was nothing short of nightmarish. He endured hunger strikes, battled illness, and often fought hard for the most basic of human needs. For him to endure all of that, fight tirelessly to be released only to ask a judge to put him back in jail didn’t make sense. It just didn’t compute, and I needed to know more. How bad were these conditions? What happened to this family? It was at that moment I decided to make Secret Trial 5.
Earlier this week, I met Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub for the first time at a court hearing for his security certificate case. He has once again been released from prison, but this time away from his family. It’s a difficult situation to say the least, but I am eager to get to know him and include his story in our film. After all, his is the story that inspired this documentary.
Thank you,
Amar
