A Syrian-born Canadian is suing US Attorney General Mr John Ashcroft for deporting him to Syria as an al-Qaeda suspect and said government officials knew he would be tortured in a Damascus jail.
The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court is the latest development in a case that has strained relations between the United States and Canada, raised security and human rights issues and led to a new deportation deal between Ottawa and Washington.
Computer technician Mr Maher Arar was arrested between international flights at Kennedy airport in New York in September 2002. He was interrogated for 13 days and expelled to Jordan and then Syria, where he said he was held for more than 10 months in a "dark, damp hole" and tortured.
Mr Arar was freed in October 2003 and returned to Canada, but he is barred from the United States. At a news briefing in New York to announce the lawsuit, Mr Arar talked by speakerphone.
"I believe that the persons who sent me to Syria knew that I would be interrogated under torture there," said Mr Arar (33) who lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children.
He has been unemployed since his return from Syria after years of working for a high-tech company.
Mr Arar added that he had "never knowingly associated with terrorists" and that under brutal treatment in Syria, he "falsely confessed to my torturers."
One of his lawyers, Mr Steven Watt, said: "Syria released him as an innocent man and an innocent man he remains today."
In a statement yesterday, the US Department of Justice headed by Mr Ashcroft said it believed Mr Arar was a member of al-Qaeda, the Islamic group blamed for the September 11th, 2001, plane strikes and other attacks.