Maher Arar, the Canadian software engineer who was detained by American officials in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he was jailed and regularly tortured, will receive 11.5 million Canadian dollars ($9.75 million) in compensation from the Canadian government, under a settlement announced Friday.
The compensation ends a lawsuit brought by Mr. Arar and follows a recommendation from a judicial inquiry into his case. That inquiry said the expulsion to Syria was caused by false assertions made by the Canadian police to United States officials, saying that Mr. Arar was an Islamic extremist linked to Al Qaeda.
Mr. Arar, traveling on a Canadian passport, was pulled aside by immigration agents in New York as he changed planes on his way home to Ottawa from Tunisia. He was instead flown to Syria, his birthplace.
The Canadian judicial inquiry cleared Mr. Arar of any terrorism connections in September 2006, and concluded that anonymous Canadian officials had orchestrated a defamation campaign against him after his return from Syria in October 2003.
As he announced the settlement on Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered a formal apology to Mr. Arar and his family for their “terrible ordeal.” Continued...
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