Any second thought on Joshua Boyle meet? Canada PM Trudeau refuses to answer
Ottawa, Jan 10 (IBNS): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not clarified whether he has any intention to meet for the second time former Taliban captive Joshua Boyle, who is now facing 15 criminal charges, media reports said.
Trudeau met Boyle, who is now in jail, in December. It was after the PM's meet that Boyle was framed in multiple charges.
In an interview with Halifax radio station 95.7 FM, Trudeau was asked whether he has regret over the meeting.
Trudeau's reply was quoted by Global News: " We’ve been very, very active on consular cases. We’ve had a number of successes in bringing people who were stuck in difficult situations overseas home, bringing them to safety, and the engagement which my office has directly with those cases has led me to meet with a number of people who have been released."
"So these kinds of things are something that I do. I always try to defer to meeting with more people rather than fewer people, and particularly people for whom we’ve been working hard over the past years. I think that’s something that’s important to do" the PM added.
Boyle is facing 15 charges including assault, sexual assault, unlawful confinement, uttering death threats, causing someone to take antidepressant and misleading police.
His next hearing will be on Jan 15 where the former Taliban captive might get a bail.
All of his offences have occurred in a period of 45 days, starting from Oct 14 to Dec 30, 2017.
Boyle, his wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children were rescued from the hands of Taliban affiliated Haqqani Network from Pakistan by the country's forces last year.
They returned to Canada on Oct 13, 2017.
Joshua Boyle (34) and Caitlan Coleman (31), who were kidnapped by the Taliban linked Haqqani network in 2012 as the couple crossed into Afghanistan, reached Canada in October last year.
Coleman was pregnant at the time when the couple was kidnapped.
Interacting with the media, after reaching Canada, Boyle said: "The stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network's kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorising the murder of my infant daughter."
(Reporting by Suman Das)
Image: twitter.com/BoylesVsWorld
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