570 News, Canada
Dec 7 2007

Que. couple asks RCMP for apology after human trafficking charge
dropped

December 6, 2007 – 19:06
By: Sidhartha Banerjee, THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL – In the months since they were arrested by the RCMP as
alleged human traffickers, a Quebec couple say they’ve lived a
hellish existence, shunned by some and tried globally by rumour.

Vindicated Thursday after the Crown decided to withdraw criminal
charges against them, Nichan Manoukian, 60, and his wife Manoudshag
Saryboyadijan, 48, are now demanding the Mounties make reparations.

And they want the federal force to begin by publicly apologizing to
them for thrusting them into the public spotlight.

The Laval, Que., couple said in an interview in Montreal Thursday
they were made out to be criminals without the RCMP conducting a
proper investigation into the allegations of an Ethiopian nanny who
had lived with them for eight years.

"They came to my door and treated me like a big criminal in front of
my children, my wife," Manoukian said at his lawyer’s office in
Westmount, Que., a stone’s throw away from the RCMP’s headquarters in
the province.

"I’ve been sick for the last two years. I’ve never cried before in my
life but I’m crying from the heart now," an emotional Manoukian
added, the toll of spending almost two years trying to clear his
family’s name apparent.

But the Mounties say the were just doing their job.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Luc Bessette said the decision to lay charges is
up to the Crown and not the police force.

"We presented the file to Crown prosecutors who decided to lay
charges, and our job was done," Bessette said.

"After that, what they do with the file is up to them, because it’s
before the courts."

It’s up to the Crown to make clear why the charges weren’t pursued,
Bessette said.

The charges had been laid last May after RCMP investigators concluded
the couple treated their nanny like a prisoner.

"Whose fault was it?" asked Saryboyadijan, adding the couple was
humiliated after being fingerprinted and having their mugshots taken.

Crown prosecutor Jonathan Meunier said the charges were dropped
because new elements were introduced since his office decided to lay
charges.

"There’s no question, we would not file any (new) charges with the
information we were given," Meunier said. "We feel that a good
decision was made in this case."

The Manoukian family says they still aren’t sure why the nanny, 29,
filed the complaint with police and are adamant that she was treated
"like family."

But they strongly believe the woman was coerced into filing the
charge to secure her status in the country and did not act on her
own. The woman gained status in Canada following the police
intervention.

The Manoukians had hired a lawyer to help her iron out her
immigration woes.

"We were already getting the paperwork for her, I don’t know why she
did it," said Arvine Manoukian, the couple’s 21-year-old daughter.
"We were even trying to help her bring her fiancee over here."

In May, the Mounties said the Manoukian’s arrests were the first of
their kind in Canada since criminal laws on human trafficking were
introduced in November 2005.

Nichan Manoukian said his family was tried by rumours in the local
Armenian and Lebanese communities. A newspaper in Lebanon listed the
couple as being jailed. The family couldn’t sit in restaurants
without having people staring at them and hearing whispering about
them.

"How could I explain to them that I was innocent," lamented Nichan
Manoukian.

The nanny lived with the couple beginning in 1997 in Lebanon.
Manoukian and his wife are both Canadian citizens and lived in
Lebanon before returning to Canada with the Ethiopian woman in tow in
2004.

She was removed from the Manoukian home in January 2006.

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