By Ashley Legassic / James Peters

Friend of TRU professor stuck in Slovakia wants federal government to act

Jan 8, 2019 | 2:55 PM

KAMLOOPS — The former colleague of a Thompson Rivers University professor who’s been stuck in Slovakia for just over a year says he’s waiting for the federal government to step in and help.

Dr. David Scheffel was facing criminal charges in April of last year, friend Ivan Somlai says, but those charges were dropped later in 2018 and Scheffel was released from custody.

“He was allowed to leave but he has to wear an ankle bracelet and report regularly… so he’s under strict instructions not to go and they haven’t given him his passport,” Somlai says. “So at least he’s out of jail, that’s one aspect, but he’s still being retained in house arrest.”

Somlai says the original charges against Scheffel were questionable, adding that Scheffel has researched in Slovakia before.

“He’s researched there for many years, many different aspects of the Roma culture and society, and at the current time he was researching child prostitution and quite a bit of information had come out about not only the Roma being involved, but also some of the police for example being implicated,” Somlai claims. “When some people suspected that names might come out and so on he was charged.”

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Somlai’s claims have not been proven, but he says the charges against Scheffel have fallen apart and witnesses who were set to testify did not. He alleges that instead of the case being fully dropped, another false accusation has been made against Scheffel which is further hindering him from returning home.

Although not a Canadian citizen, Scheffel has lived in Canada for 35 years and teaches at TRU. Somlai claims Scheffel’s status in the country has had an impact on how the federal government has dealt with the situation.

He says despite reaching out to the Prime Minister’s Office and Canada’s foreign minister several times, he doesn’t feel the case is being taken seriously.

“He’s not a citizen but he is a permanent resident and he has contributed substantially to our society here through the education, and then through international work — sometimes through my assistance and other times totally on his own,” Somlai says. “He wanted to do some humanitarian work in Slovakia which he has been doing. My beef is that I can’t get a proper answer from our own government as to why they wouldn’t help in any way.”

A Global Affairs Canada spokesperson said the department is aware of the situation “faced by a Dutch citizen in Slovakia.”

“While the Government of Canada cannot provide consular assistance to non-citizens, we are in in touch with our Dutch colleagues, who are providing consular assistance.”

Although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Kamloops tomorrow (Jan. 9), Somlai is hesitant about attending a public town hall to question him on Scheffel’s case.

“I just have no faith in that type of forum,” Somlai says. “Every letter that I have sent to the foreign minister and to (Trudeau) were sent to both of them. The only thing over eight or more letters that we’ve received so far are sort of form letters from their press staff saying it will be looked after, but as I noted since May, there has been no cogent reply at all from any of them as to what they might do.”