RCMP to lay charges in Maher Arar case

Maher Arar leaves a news conference with a copy of Justice O'Connor's report on the Arar inquiry after discussing the government's apology and compensation package at a news conference in Ottawa, Friday Jan. 26, 2007. (Tom Hanson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The RCMP will be laying torture charges against a former Syrian military intelligence officer in the case of Maher Arar, the Canadian who was tortured after being deported to Syria by U.S. authorities.

Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, told reporters Tuesday that Col. George Salloum will be charged in absentia for his alleged involvement in Arar's torture.

He said there will now be a concerted effort to locate Salloum, whose whereabouts are unknown, to ensure he is extradited to stand trial in Canada. Neve recognized that locating and extraditing Salloum represents a major challenge, but said it is not insurmountable.

Neve stressed the "ground-breaking" charges represent a significant human-rights milestone.

"The charges -- the first-ever in Canada for torture in another country -- send a strong message around the world that torturers that commit their terrible abuses in far-away prison cells may well find their crimes judged in a Canadian court," he said.

Monia Mazigh, Arar's wife, read a statement on behalf of her husband, who has avoided media appearances over the last two years.

Arar said in the statement that he welcomed news of the charges, which are the result of a 10-year investigation that saw RCMP officers travel overseas to gather evidence.

While the charges against Salloum stem from his own case, Arar claimed the former Syrian officer was also "directly involved" in the torture of other Canadian citizens.

“This is by no means the end of the road,” he said in the statement. "It is my hope that George Salloum will be found alive, arrested, and extradited to Canada to face Canadian justice."

Mazigh said since her husband’s release from Syria in 2003, Salloum's name has represented a painful reminder of Arar's past.

"It is a very heavy feeling to (have this name) evoked to us. It is very difficult, especially for my husband," she said. "All these nightmares, all this post-traumatic stress he has lived with all these years can be somehow captured in this name."

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who was a whistle-blower on the Arar case, said the charges are “very big news,” even though the unlikeliness of finding Salloum could make it largely “symbolic.”

“It shows that at one western government -- that’s the Government of Canada – has the guts to pursue this case,” he said. “This is something, frankly, that every civilized government should be doing.”

Kiriakou told CTV News Channel that the American government should apologize to Arar, who was deported to his birth country in 2002, as he changed planes in New York on his way back to Montreal from a holiday in Tunisia.

Kiriakou said he believes the CIA would now “think twice before kidnapping a Canadian citizen and sending him to a third country to be tortured.” But “only because of the press attention that Arar’s case has garnered.”

Suspected of having links to al Qaeda, Arar was held and interrogated in New York, before U.S. authorities deported him to Syria.

He was imprisoned in Syria for a year, where he was tortured. He was finally released in 2003, and Canadian officials later concluded that he had no involvement in terrorism.

A federal inquiry into his case found that the RCMP shared incorrect information about Arar with U.S. authorities, which likely led to his deportation.

In 2007, Arar received $10.5 million from the Canadian government in a legal settlement. Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote a letter to Arar, apologizing for any role Canadian officials played in his "terrible ordeal."

After his release, Arar filed a lawsuit against high-ranking U.S. officials, alleging they conspired with Syrian authorities to have him tortured.

In 2010, after the case was dismissed in the lower courts, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Arar's final appeal.

With files from The Canadian Press