By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 1 March 2015:
The gunman in the 22 October 2014 shooting at Canada’s parliament in Ottawa has been . . .[restrict]buried in Libya, according to a relative.
Candian-born Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, whose father is Libyan, was shot and killed by a guard after he had shot dead a Canadian solider on duty outside the parliament.
The Libyan Embassy in Ottawa has confirmed that Zehaf-Bibeau’s body was sent to Libya. According to his cousin, Ashraf Zehaf, the body was buried in mid-November in the presence of his father, Bulgasem Zehaf, who had traveled to Libya for the funeral.
Libyan consular official in Ottawa Khalifa Al-Ghuwel has confirmed that that Zehaf-Bibeau’s body was released to the father to take to Libya for the burial.
Zehaf-Bibeau was 32 years old at the time of his death and was known to be a drug addict suffering with mental issues. He had converted to Islam in 2004 and visited Libya. In the months leading up to the shooting, he had planned to leave Canada, reportedly for Libya, and was living in an Ottawa homeless shelter as the government processed his Canadian passport.
According to Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Bob Paulson, the “passport issue was central to what ws driving” Zehaf-Bibeau, and the gunman had gone so far as to make a video prior to the attack in which he allegedly expressed his motives as being related “to Canada’s foreign policy and in respect of his religious beliefs”.
According to family members in Libya, however, it was more likely that Zehaf-Bibeau was frustrated after earlier attempts to return to Libya, his father’s homeland.
“The Canadian government is primarily responsible for all of this,” said Zehaf.
His Canadian mother told reporters that her son was simply mentally disturbed.
Zehaf-Bibeau was buried in the Cain Shaib’s cemetery in Zawiya, Libya “in the way of his religion—Islam”, said Zahaf. [/restrict]
