BEIRUT:
Canadian potato farmer Henk Tepper returned home Saturday after being incarcerated
in Beirut for a year for allegedly selling rotten potatoes to Algeria.
“I’m
happy to be home,” he said upon arriving at the Ottowa airport, the Associated
Press reported. AP added that Tepper looked drained as he was reunited with his
family. His lawyers, who accompanied Tepper from Lebanon, said they would have
more to say Monday.
The
44-year-old New Brunswick potato farmer owns Tobique Farms near Grand Falls,
one of the largest family-run potato farms in New Brunswick. He was part of a
trade delegation to Lebanon when he was detained by authorities on March 23,
2011 upon his arrival in Beirut because his name was flagged as having an
international “red notice” arrest warrant issued by Interpol.
The
warrant was over Algerian charges that Tepper had sold potatoes with ringrot, a
bacterial disease causing brown rot in vegetables, and fabricating documents in
2007.
Following
his arrest Tepper was held in a prison cell at Beirut’s Justice Palace for just
over one year.
New Brunswick Premier David
Alward, a former agriculture minister who has gone on trade missions with
Tepper, expressed relief at his release.The Associated Press reported Alward as
saying, “He’s been one of the potato producers in New Brunswick that has been
most focused on building export markets, and this is a huge relief to the whole
industry.”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Apr-01/168727-lebanon-frees-canadian-farmer-accused-of-selling-rotten-potatoes.ashx#axzz1qrif96ZC
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