Money, apology issued to 3 Arab-Canadian men

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Ont. (AA) – The government has apologized and paid compensation to three Arab-Canadian men for the role Canadian officials played in their torture in Syria and Egypt, Canadian media reported Friday.

The announcement brings to an end a 10-year lawsuit filed by each of the men for $100 million.

The news was made public in a joint statement by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.

“On behalf of the government of Canada, we wish to apologize to Mr. [Abdullah] Almalki, Mr. [Ahmad] Elmaati and Mr. [Muayyed] Nureddin, and their families, for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to their detention and mistreatment abroad and any resulting harm,” the statement said.

The amount of compensation was not disclosed but in a similar case, Arab-Canadian Maher Arar, who was tortured in a Syrian prison, received $11.5 million and an apology, Global News TV reported.

Almalki, an Ottawa electronics engineer, was detained in Damascus in 2002 after arriving to visit his family and was held in custody for 22 months. Tortured, he falsely confessed to a being a close associate of Osama bin Laden, the CBC reported.

Elmaati, who drove a truck in the Toronto area, went to Damascus to get married in 2001, was detained and tortured and sent to an Egyptian prison where he endured more torture before he was released three years later.

Nureddin, a principal at a Toronto Islamic school, crossed the border from Iraq, where he was visiting family, into Syria in 2003 and detained, tortured and held for 34 days before being released.

Nureddin said there was little doubt questions put to him by his torturers came from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

“I was shocked that my country, which was supposed to work for my safety, let me end up in the torture chamber,” Nureddin told the CBC last year.

There was no statement from the three men, but lawyer Phil Tunley, who represented them, said “our clients are gratified to have received an apology from the highest level of the Canadian government.”