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Canada charges Syrian officer over torture of engineer mistaken for terrorist
Source: Associated Press
Canada charges Syrian officer over torture of engineer mistaken for terrorist
Associated Press in Toronto
Tuesday 1 September 2015 21.35 BST
Canada’s national police force has charged a former Syrian military intelligence officer in abstentia for allegedly torturing a Canadian engineer transferred by the US to an overseas detention centre.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Tuesday it has filed a torture charge against George Salloum for his alleged involvement in the torture of Maher Arar.
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, says he was mistaken for a terrorist in 2002 when he changed planes in New York while returning to Canada from a visit to relatives in Tunisia. He was then sent to Syria, where he says he was tortured and forced to make false confessions about supposed links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
The Canadian government agreed to pay Arar C$10.5m ($7.9m) and apologised to him for its role in the case. Syria has denied he was tortured.
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Associated Press in Toronto
Tuesday 1 September 2015 21.35 BST
Canada’s national police force has charged a former Syrian military intelligence officer in abstentia for allegedly torturing a Canadian engineer transferred by the US to an overseas detention centre.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Tuesday it has filed a torture charge against George Salloum for his alleged involvement in the torture of Maher Arar.
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, says he was mistaken for a terrorist in 2002 when he changed planes in New York while returning to Canada from a visit to relatives in Tunisia. He was then sent to Syria, where he says he was tortured and forced to make false confessions about supposed links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
The Canadian government agreed to pay Arar C$10.5m ($7.9m) and apologised to him for its role in the case. Syria has denied he was tortured.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/canadian-police-charge-syrian-officer-torture-engineer
