TORONTO, 20 September 2006 — The United States “very likely” sent a Canadian software engineer to Syria, where he was tortured, based on the false accusation by Canadian authorities that he was suspected of links to Al-Qaeda, according to a new government report.
Syrian-born Maher Arar was exonerated of all suspicion of terrorist activity by the 2 1/2-year commission of inquiry into his case, which urged the Canadian government to offer him financial compensation. Arar is perhaps the world’s best-known case of extraordinary rendition — the US transfer of foreign terror suspects to third countries without court approval.
“I am able to say categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offense or that his activities constitute a threat to the security of Canada,” Justice Dennis O’Connor said Monday in a three-volume report on the findings of the inquiry, part of which was made public.
Arar was traveling on a Canadian passport when he was detained at New York’s Kennedy Airport on Sept. 26, 2002, on his way home from vacation in Tunisia. Arar said US authorities sent him to Syria for interrogation as a suspected member of Al-Qaeda, a link he denied.
He spent nearly a year in prison in Syria and made detailed allegations after his release in 2003 about extensive interrogation, beatings and whippings with electrical cables.
O’Connor criticized the US and recommended that Ottawa file formal protests with both Washington and the Syrian government over Arar’s treatment.
“The American authorities who handled Mr. Arar’s case treated Mr. Arar in a most regrettable fashion,” O’Connor wrote. “They removed him to Syria against his wishes and in the face of his statements that he would be tortured if sent there. Moreover, they dealt with Canadian officials involved with Mr. Arar’s case in a less than forthcoming manner.”
The US is already under intense criticism from human rights groups over the practice of sending suspects to countries where they could be tortured. US and Syrian officials refused to cooperate with the Canadian inquiry.
The commission found the Royal Canadian Mounted Police shared information about Arar with American anti-terrorist agencies both before and after he was detained.
The RCMP asked the US to put Arar on a watch list as an “Islamic extremist individual” suspected of links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist movement, the report said.
The request was issued after Arar met with another man who was under surveillance, a meeting Arar has said was about how to find inexpensive computer equipment.
“The RCMP had no basis for this description, which had the potential to create serious consequences for Mr. Arar in light of American attitudes and practices,” the report said.
The RCMP described Arar as the “target” of a domestic anti-terrorist investigation in Canada when in fact he was a peripheral figure who had come under suspicion only because he had been seen in the company of the man who was under surveillance, the report found.
O’Connor said that much of the material shared with US authorities had not been double-checked to ensure its accuracy and reliability — a violation of the RCMP’s usual rules for divulging information to foreign agencies.
