Maher Arar

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Maher Arar (born September 15, 1970 in Syria ) is a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent who was deported from the United States under legally problematic circumstances to Syria on account of unsubstantiated terrorism allegations and who claims to have been tortured there. After his release he was able to prove his innocence.

According to the assessment of the official Canadian commission of inquiry, it was a case of extraordinary rendition , in German: "extraordinary extradition", a euphemism for the kidnapping and transfer of terror suspects to third countries, partly with the aim of gaining important information there through torture .

biography

At the age of 17, Arar moved to Canada with his parents, where he received Canadian citizenship in 1991. He graduated from McGill University in Montreal engineering and graduated with a Bachelor in computer science from. He obtained a master’s degree from the University of Québec . Already at McGill University he met his future wife Monia Mazigh, who came from Tunisia and whom he married in 1994.

Their daughter Baraa was born in February 1997, and the family moved from Montreal to Ottawa in December of that year . In February 2002 their son Houd was born.

Terror allegations

In July 2002, Maher Arar and his family went to Tunisia for a longer vacation. His former employer, MathWorks, contacted him by email and told him that he was needed in Canada and that he could start a consultancy job. Arar wanted to accept this offer and planned the return journey to Ottawa via Zurich and New York . On September 25, 2002, he flew from Tunisia to Zurich and from there on the next day to New York. There he was arrested by FBI agents at New York's JFK Airport . As a Canadian citizen, he does not need a visa to stay in the USA , but he was still accused of having entered the USA "uninvited".

Arar was then detained and interrogated in New York for twelve days. The Americans suspected him of belonging to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda . There was no evidence of this. During his detention , Arar repeatedly requested that he be either brought to Canada or back to Switzerland , since normally, if a state refuses a person entry, he or she is sent back to the place from which he or she came under international law.

Because Maher Arar had dual citizenship, he was deported to his native Syria. In March 2002 the US State Department issued an official report that there was "credible evidence" that Syrian security forces were torturing prisoners . Article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture , which was also signed by the US, prohibits people from being deported to countries where they are at risk of torture. Even so, then Assistant Attorney General Larry Thompson approved the deportation. On October 8, 2002 Maher Arar was flown to Washington and from there via Rome to Amman in Jordan .

On October 9, 2002, Maher Arar was flown to Syria and taken to Far Filastin prison. He was held there in a cell that was 90 centimeters wide, six feet long and two meters high. He stayed in this cell for over ten months until August 19, 2003.

He later said he was tortured during interrogation. Maher Arar reported that he had been asked to open his right hand. Then a cable is said to have been hit several times on the palm of his hand. He said that while he was in detention, he was repeatedly beaten with cables on his arms, palms, and soles of his feet: “They beat me with a black electric cord, gave me electric shocks and hit me with their bare fists. If I wasn't tortured myself, I had to listen to the screams of other tortured inmates ».

Maher Arar's wife campaigned for her husband's release. The detention period lasted ten months and ten days. On October 5th, 2003 Maher Arar was flown to Canada.

The Arar case sparked widespread media coverage and public inquiry in Canada. The result of this investigation was that Maher Arar was innocent. He filed a lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and other US officials, which was also dismissed on appeal and by the Supreme Court. The reason given was the violation of state secrets .

See also

swell

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description of the procedure
personal data
SURNAME Arar, maher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES ماهر عرار
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian-Canadian citizen, wrongly suspected of being a terrorist
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Syria