[R-G] Torture linked to Canadian actions: Report

Tue Oct 21 16:09:13 MDT 2008

Torture linked to Canadian actions: Report
  http://www.canada.com/cityguides/winnipeg/info/story.html?id=0f05b6cb-71d5-4b97-b2dd-7890fdec98c8
Meagan Fitzpatrick
Canwest News Service

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

OTTAWA - The torture of three Canadian men in a Syrian prison  
"resulted indirectly" from the actions of Canadian officials, a  
government inquiry released Tuesday said.

The inquiry, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci,  
examined the roles played by CSIS, the RCMP and Foreign Affairs in the  
cases of Ahmad Abou-Elmaati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin -  
who were all detained separately in Syria and alleged they were  
tortured.

Iacobucci's report confirmed they were in fact tortured and finds  
Canadian officials shared intelligence information that in some  
instances contributed to their detention and subsequent mistreatment,  
but Iacobucci did not make a direct link between their torture and  
Canadian officials.

"I found no evidence that any of these officials were seeking to do  
anything other than carry out conscientiously the duties and  
responsibilities of the institutions of which they were a part. It is  
neither necessary nor appropriate that I make findings concerning the  
actions of any individual Canadian official, and I have not done so,"  
Iacobucci said at a news conference after the report was made public.

In the lengthy public report, a different version than the one  
provided to the government on Monday because of national security,  
Iacobucci examined the three cases separately.

In all three he found "mistreatment resulted indirectly" from either  
actions of the RCMP or CSIS, or both agencies.

In two of the three cases, Iacobucci found officials from the  
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade failed to fulfil  
their duties.

Iacobucci told reporters that authorities from Syria, Egypt, Malaysia  
and the United States did not co-operate with his investigation and  
that if they had, perhaps he would have been able to make different  
conclusions about what agencies were directly or indirectly  
responsible for what happened to the three men.

"We do not know the full story," he said.

The government called for the inquiry in December 2006 to determine  
what role Canadian officials may have played in the overseas  
detention, interrogation and torture of the men.

Elmaati, Almalki and Nureddin were arrested separately when entering  
Syria between 2001 and 2003. They allege they were detained in Syria  
because of misleading national security intelligence shared by Canada.  
All three men were the subject of Canadian national security  
investigations by the RCMP or CSIS at the time of their imprisonments.

Iacobucci was appointed to head the 22-month inquiry which was largely  
conducted behind closed doors.

The men who are the subject of the inquiry and organizations including  
Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association  
criticized the inquiry for its secrecy.

However, Iacobucci said it was necessary for national security and to  
cut down on the length of the process.

Consequently, it is expected not all information the inquiry collected  
will be made public in Tuesday's report.

The inquiry interviewed 40 witnesses from a confidential list behind  
closed doors, and collected 40,000 documents - which were not made  
public.

Lawyers for the men were not allowed to cross-examine the secret  
witnesses.

Iacobucci has defended the process as necessary to fulfil his mandate.  
Government lawyers said the probe was focused on possible misconduct  
by officials, rather than clearing the trio's names.

Ottawa ordered the inquiry in 2006 following Justice Dennis O'Connor's  
report into the Maher Arar case. The Ottawa software engineer was  
found to have been tortured in Syria.

In his report, O'Connor concluded that what happened to Almalki, El- 
Maati and Nureddin raised troubling questions when considered  
alongside Arar's experience.