Staff Reporter
Two photos, one woman.
For the first time, Canadians can see two photographs that prompted federal officials to prevent Toronto's Suaad Hagi Mohamud from returning home for three months, even though she presented more than a dozen pieces of ID.
The photos are among a mountain of papers filed Monday with the Federal Court to explain why Canadian consular officials in Nairobi branded Mohamud an imposter and not the owner of her passport.
She was held, including in an eight-day stint in a Nairobi jail, while her family and friends in Canada mounted a campaign to bring her home and reunite her with her 12-year-old son.
The documents blame Mohamud, saying she gave contradictory statements that led officials to suspect her, and point to the photos, which apparently triggered her initial detention by a Kenyan airport official.
While her face looks wider in one photo, it's likely distorted because it was taken from surveillance camera video, Raoul Boulakia, one of Mohamud's lawyers, told the Star on Monday.
"The photos look like they've been taken by a `keyhole' camera and her face looks distorted," he said. "But it's clearly the same person."
The first photo was taken April 29, the day Mohamud flew into Nairobi. Her face is fuzzy, she's wearing a cream-coloured headscarf and her mouth is slightly open.
In the other photo, taken three weeks later while she was being interrogated at the Nairobi airport, it is obvious she has been crying.
"If the government is saying this is what made (consular officials) doubt her, it's pretty weak," Boulakia said.
Mohamud, 31, tried to fly home to Toronto on May 21 but was detained at the airport for not looking like her four-year-old passport photo.
The Canadian High Commission in Nairobi called Mohamud an imposter, cancelled her passport and recommended prosecution.
Weeks later, the federal government bowed to pressure and agreed to do a DNA test, which confirmed her identity.
She returned to Toronto amid a media frenzy on Aug. 15.
Days later, Mohamud – a Canadian citizen born in Somalia – launched a lawsuit against the Canadian government, seeking $2.6 million in compensation for her ordeal.
The federal documents filed Monday say that, in addition to the differing photos, officials found she couldn't answer basic questions about Canada, according to the CBC, which viewed the papers.
In one interview, she couldn't name the Prime Minister.
"Are they saying because she didn't know who Stephen Harper was, they couldn't figure out who she was?" Boulakia asked.
Mohamud, who has not given any interviews since she returned to Toronto, was unavailable for comment.
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