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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Canadian inquiry underlines need for investigation into Maher Arar
case in Syria and Jordan
Amnesty International welcomes the findings of
the Canadian public inquiry
into the role of Canadian officials in the deportation and
detention of
Maher Arar, published on 18 September.
Among other findings, the inquiry concluded that Maher Arar was
tortured
while detained for almost 12 months in Syria. In light of this,
Amnesty
International is repeating its call to the Syrian authorities
urgently to
establish their own independent investigation into the torture
and other
ill-treatment of Maher Arar in Syria. Over many years Amnesty
International has repeatedly documented cases, including Maher
Arar?Ts,
illustrating the widespread practise of torture in Syria and
called for
proper investigations. However, the organization has never
received
information to indicate that any of these cases, including some
which
reportedly led to deaths in custody, have been investigated or
that any
officials responsible for torture have been prosecuted.
Maher Arar was detained in Syria between 9 October 2002 and 5
October
2003. He was mostly held in incommunicado detention in inhumane
conditions
in a tiny, unlit basement cell at the Palestine Branch of
Military
Intelligence, Damascus, before being released without charge.
During his detention in Syria he was tortured, including by
being beaten
with a shredded thick black electrical cable. He was threatened
that he
would be tortured using the metal ?~German?T chair and ?~the
tyre?T torture
methods and with electric shocks. He heard other prisoners being
tortured
and screaming. Interrogators, who may have been working on
information
supplied by Canadian and US intelligence agencies, alleged that
he was
involved with al-Qa?Tida. The findings of the public inquiry
have indicated
that much of that information was inaccurate and had been
improperly
shared by Canadian police with their US counterparts. The
inquiry has
concluded that after extensive investigations ?othere is
nothing to
indicate that Mr. Arar committed any offence or that his
activities
constitute a threat to the security of Canada.?
Maher Arar, a 34-year-old Canadian telecommunications consultant
of Syrian
origin, was detained in the US on 26 September 2002 while
changing flights
on his journey from Tunisia back home to Canada. He was detained
in the
USA for 12 days and then, on 8 October 2002 was taken from his
cell in the
middle of the night and flown on a private plane via other US
airports and
Rome, Italy, to Jordan, where he was beaten and driven to Syria.
Amnesty International also repeats its call upon the Jordanian
authorities to make public the names of all individuals who have
been transferred into or out of Jordanian custody from or to US
custody, or via the assistance of US or other intelligence and
security services. The dates and locations of the individuals?T
detention in Jordan should be provided, as well as the legal
basis for their detention.
Background
The Canadian Commission of Inquiry?Ts findings vindicate Maher
Arar and
call for him to be compensated. It calls too for an
?oindependent and
credible? review to be carried out into
the cases of three other Canadian
nationals of Arab origin who were detained, interrogated and
tortured in
Syria in previous years with the possible complicity or
involvement of
Canadian and other foreign intelligence agencies: Ahmed Abou El-Maati
who
was detained for 11 weeks after he arrived in Syria on 12
November 2001
(after which he was further transferred to Egypt, where he again
experienced severe torture and remained in detention without
charge or
trial until 11 January 2004); ?~Abdullah Almalki who was
detained at the Palestine Branch in Damascus for 22 months from
3 May 2002 until 10 March 2004; and Muayyed Nureddin who was
detained in Syria from 11 December 2003 to 13 January 2004. The
inquiry?Ts fact-finder, Professor Stephen Toope,
who has served as the Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced
Disappearances, interviewed all of these men in the course of
his
fact-finding mandate and concluded that each of them provided
credible
testimony that they had been tortured in Syria.
Amnesty International continues to call on the US authorities to
establish an independent commission of inquiry into all aspects
of the USA?Ts ?owar on terror? detention policies and
practices, including rendition. The Canadian Commission of
Inquiry?Ts findings on Maher Arar?Ts case, as well as
President George W. Bush's recent confirmation that the USA?Ts
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been operating a secret
detention and interrogation programme outside the United States,
have further
highlighted the need for such an inquiry in the US. Amnesty
International is also calling on the US government to identify
all individuals who have been held in the CIA programme, and
clarify their fate and whereabouts.
Amnesty International has actively taken up the cases of Maher
Arar,
Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, both
while they
were in detention in Syria and following their return to Canada.
The
organization pressed for the public inquiry into Maher Arar?Ts
case to be convened and, once it was, participated actively in
the course of the
inquiry as an intervenor. Amnesty International had urged the
Commissioner to include a reference to the cases of the other
detainees in his report and to recommend that a further process
of independent review into those cases was necessary. Amnesty
International calls on the Canadian government to now move to
implement this and all other recommendations in the inquiry
report.
By: Amnesty
International |
