Canadian banker released from prison in Dubai after 10 months behind bars

Open this photo in gallery:Ryan O’Grady in March, 2023, at left, and in September, 2026, after being released from prison in the United Arab Emirates. He lost 17 kg in his 10 months of imprisonmentSuppliedA Canadian banker, malnourished and suffering from several illnesses, has been released from a Dubai prison after more than 10 months behind bars on a disputed extradition request by South Sudan.Ryan O’Grady, former chief executive officer of South Sudan’s Kush Bank and a long-time development consultant in Africa’s non-profit sector, was arrested in Dubai last November after South Sudan requested his extradition on allegations of breach of trust.He was held in an overcrowded cell in Al Awir prison on the outskirts of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where his health rapidly deteriorated and he suffered severe infections from the poor hygienic conditions.“It’s been a living nightmare, in many ways,” Mr. O’Grady said in a social-media message to his supporters on Wednesday, about 36 hours after he was released.Ottawa shuts the doors of embassy in South Sudan without explanationHe said his release was proof of his innocence and of the “illegal actions” by “corrupt cartels” in South Sudan that had misused the international criminal justice system. In an interview later, Mr. O’Grady told The Globe and Mail that he lost 17 kilograms (37 pounds) in prison and endured several illnesses, including a serious bacterial infection that was common among dozens of prisoners.But the conditions in a South Sudan prison would have been much worse, so the extradition would have amounted to a death sentence because of the risk of torture and deadly illnesses, he said.Mr. O’Grady, 47, said he was dumped at the side of a road outside Al Awir prison on Monday evening by prison officials who gave no explanation for his release. A local motorist gave him a ride to central Dubai, where he has received medical treatment for the infections and other illnesses in his lungs and ears.The CEO of Kush Bank from 2022 to 2023, Mr. O’Grady has said he faced death threats in South Sudan when he tried to clean up internal corruption at the bank. He moved to Dubai in late 2023 and, two years later, was arrested and jailed in response to South Sudan’s extradition request.Despite two years of investigation, no evidence against him was ever presented in Dubai or South Sudan, Mr. O’Grady said.Spokespersons for South Sudan’s government have not responded to The Globe’s repeated queries about the case.2025: Predatory elite has plundered South Sudan’s oil revenue, pushing the country to brink of war, UN saysOttawa opposed the South Sudan extradition request for Mr. O’Grady, according to MP Philip Lawrence, whose Ontario riding of Northumberland-Clarke includes Mr. O’Grady’s hometown, Cobourg. Federal officials have declined to comment publicly on the case, but Mr. O’Grady said Canadian consular officials tried to help him during his months in prison. Mr. O’Grady was released just hours after a meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and the UAE’s Minister of State for International Co-operation, Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, in Toronto on Monday. In its readout of that meeting, Global Affairs Canada made no mention of the O’Grady case.In recent months, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has been pushing to deepen Canada’s trade and investment links with the UAE. Potential multibillion-dollar investments in Canada by the UAE have reportedly been discussed.Global Affairs announced on Friday that one of Mr. Carney’s closest aides, long-time Liberal staffer Angad Singh Dhillon, has been appointed as Canada’s next ambassador to the UAE.Human-rights groups have criticized both the UAE and the South Sudan governments for arbitrary arrests and other abuses. One South Sudanese political commentator, Samuel Peter Oyay, has been imprisoned in the UAE for the past year without any charges after he criticized corruption in South Sudan, according to a report on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch.“The UAE isn’t content with silencing its own critics but is also doing the same for its allies,” Joey Shea, senior UAE researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Wednesday.