The Canadian government on Friday formally apologized in a statement to three of its citizens who were tortured in Syria, which Canadian officials allegedly played an indirect role in. The government said it had settled civil suits with three Canadian nationals — Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin — who were arrested and tortured in Syrian custody just after the 9/11 attacks and detained until 2004. This past September Canada’s CBC news network obtained exclusive documents showing that Canadian officials had fed Syrian officials questions they asked the men who were detained and tortured. In a similar case, Canadian computer engineer Maher Arar was tortured in a Damascus prison in 2002, after he was transferred there by US officials based on a Canadian tip-off. But Arar was later cleared of any suspicion by the Canadian authorities, and in January 2007 won an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Can$10 million in compensation from the Canadian government.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 18, 2017 03:11 UTC