Sami Bebawi, the former SNC Lavalin executive who received the harshest sentence to come out of the engineering firm’s corruption scandal, has been granted full parole while he appeals a court order that could see him returned behind bars.
In a decision made last week, the Parole Board of Canada granted Bebawi, 79, full parole despite how he recently violated one of the conditions of his day parole. He was granted the release while he appeals a court order that was part of the sentence he received in 2020. Besides an eight-year prison term, he was ordered to pay a $24-million fine by Feb. 14, 2025 or risk having to serve a 10-year prison term consecutive to the current sentence.
“The board notes that you maintained conformist behaviour inside (a federal penitentiary). Only one observation report was recorded, dated November 2023, referring to the fact that you became angry and made negative comments,” the parole board wrote in its decision. “Otherwise, your relationships with fellow inmates and staff members were adequate.
“Since your return to the community (at a halfway house), it appears that you rarely oppose the (the conditions of his day parole) and you maintain a compliant behaviour, except for a breach of the financial disclosure condition that occurred in June 2025, highlighting that you may be indifferent to the rules and expectations surrounding your supervision.”
According to the parole decision, Bebawi is “retired, receives a substantial pension and demonstrates financial stability.”
On Oct. 22, the parole board decided to grant Bebawi full parole because he represents no risk of committing a violent crime during the rest of his eight-year sentence. He began serving the sentence in 2023 and he was granted day parole last year.
On Dec. 15, 2019, a jury at the Montreal courthouse found Bebawi guilty of fraud, corruption of foreign officials and laundering proceeds of crime. Bebawi was a vice-president with SNC Lavalin Inc. when he committed the crimes to land lucrative contracts from the Libyan government for the Montreal-based engineering giant, beginning in the late 1990s. The contracts were obtained through Saadi Gadhafi, one of the sons of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Saadi Gadhafi was paid $40 million in bribes, received a $25-million yacht and then later a second yacht worth 12 million euros. Bebawi and Gadhafi discussed the first yacht as a bribe during a boat show they attended together in Cannes, France in 2006.
“A fine was imposed (on Bebawi) in the amount of $24,690,401.19. On Feb. 14, 2023, the Quebec Court of Appeal set a two-year payment deadline, starting on that date. Failing this, you were to be sentenced to a consecutive 10-year sentence upon the expiry of the deadline on Feb. 14, 2025,” the parole board noted in its decision.
“However, you are continuing your efforts to contest this fine and to prove your inability to pay. Otherwise, you will have to pay this fine.”
Bebawi’s case involving the fine returns to the Montreal courthouse in November.
