Freelance Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout says she had no idea her alleged Somali kidnapper was in Canada last week, until an RCMP officer phoned her to say he was in custody.

Police arrested Somali national Ali Omar Ader last Thursday, nearly seven years after Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were abducted in Mogadishu. Lindhout was taken hostage in 2008, and held captive for 15 months, during which time she was repeatedly starved and abused, she says.

Lindhout says she collapsed when she heard the news that her alleged captor had been taken into custody, following a five-year RCMP investigation during which she was "very regularly" in touch with police.

"I think I wept for about five minutes. I was so overwhelmed and relieved," Lindhout told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.

Lindhout believes Ader was the lead negotiator and decision-maker for her alleged hostage-takers.

"My daily life in captivity… was very severe, and he was part of that decision-making process," she said. "He was terrorizing my dear mother here in Canada, demanding money from her (and) threatening my life."

It's still unclear exactly how Ader came to Canada. Lindhout says she "had nothing to do" with bringing him to the country, and she was "as surprised as everyone to discover that he was here."

Sources told CTV News that Ader's arrest was the result of a sophisticated operation involving several government agencies, as well as the Australian police.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney said he was not aware of any Canadian military involvement in bringing Ader to Canada.

"The fact that the RCMP, with other international police agencies, have stayed on this case and brought this investigation to a successful conclusion is a great credit to them," he told CTV's Question Period.

Ader, 37, appeared in an Ottawa courtroom via video link on Friday.

Lindhout says Ader had the "audacity" to reach out to her and her mother on Facebook last summer. She says she did not respond, but her mother did exchange a few messages with him.

"She was feeling so angry about the way that I had been treated and was demanding some answers from him," Lindhout said.

She said her healing process "isn't contingent on these guys being in jail, and yet this is a form of justice."

"This is his destiny," she said.