Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Mar 18/02) - A 24-year-old Egyptian woman was found not guilty of working illegally in Canada, but Citizenship and Immigration Canada is still refusing to release her passport.

Etab Adel Mostafa Saad appeared in Inuvik territorial court Thursday to answer to a Sept. 12 charge of breaching the conditions of her visitor's visa. She was accused of working from May 4 to Sept. 12, 2001 for Northern Management and Development Ltd., a property development company run by engineer Sam Kassem.

The case rested on the testimony of Kassem's niece, Reham Kassem, who told the court that Saad said she was going to Inuvik to work and that she would be making $40,000 a year, tax-free. Reham, a college student who lives in Calgary, said that when she visited Inuvik to do contract work for her uncle in the summer of 2001, she saw Saad working in the office, answering phones, writing cheques and keeping the company accounts.

Defence law-yer Sid Tarr-abain argued Reham was not a reliable witness because she was formerly engaged to Saad's brother, and is in the midst of a civil action against him.

Tarrabain said Saad was in Inuvik to assess Kassem's company because her father in Egypt was planning to invest in the business.

On the stand, Kassem said he never hired Saad or paid her any money.

He said sometimes Saad would help around the office, but not as an employee. "If nobody's around and the phone's ringing, she'd answer it," Kassem testified.

Judge F.W. Coward said he had no trouble accepting Saad's story, but he said her passport was out of his hands because it never entered into the court's possession as evidence.

Outside of court, Kassem expressed anger at Citizenship and Immigration for what he called "a waste of taxpayers' money.

"The situation here is very clear. We're not trying to steal jobs from people here. They're coming to invest and create employment."

Saad's lawyer said his client may now be facing a separate immigration hearing.

"The way Immigration has treated this girl and Northern Management is despicable," Tarrabain said after the trial. "They arrested her, they detained her for 12 hours and they treated her like a criminal."

He questioned the department's authority to hold Saad's passport after she'd been found not guilty of the charges in court.

Citizenship and Immigration officer Leona Martin said she could not discuss the case.