Ottawa, Ontario
A judicial commission this week cleared a Canadian computer engineer of any terrorist ties and faulted Canadian and American authorities for his deportation to Syria, where he was tortured. The commission said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2001 relayed false allegations to the FBI that Maher Arar, 36, had ties to al Qaida. The FBI then arrested the Syrian-born Arar in New York, as he returned from an overseas trip, and transported him to Syria. He spent almost a year in a prison there, receiving regular beatings with a metal cable until he gave a false confession. The Canadian commission said there was “categorically no evidence” that Arar was a terrorist. The commission also criticized the U.S. for not cooperating with its investigation.
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