The Canadian government has paid heavy compensation to three men who were tortured after they were wrongly accused of being terrorists.
(left to right) Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin and Ahmad Elmaati are shown in Ottawa on
May 8, 2008. Each was tortured in Syria and is suing the Canadian government. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)
Canada settled a lawsuit with three citizens who were wrongly accused of terror links and tortured in Syria and Egypt for Can$31.5 million (US$24.6 million), local media said Thursday.
According to AFP, the men identified as Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin had been arrested and tortured just after the 9/11 attacks.
They were later released in 2004 without charges before returning to Canada. They were proclaimed and sued the government for Can$100 million over its role in their detention.
A 2008 independent inquiry led by retired Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci concluded that Canada’s spy agency and federal police force had been “indirectly” responsible for the three men’s mistreatment.
Canada’s CBC news network last year obtained exclusive documents showing that Canadian officials had fed Syrian officials questions they asked the men who were detained and tortured.
Almost a decade after the independent inquiry, the government formally apologized to the trio in March “for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to their detention and mistreatment abroad and any resulting harm.”
But officials did not divulge the amount of a settlement reached at the time.
On Thursday, Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, said: “A settlement with these three gentlemen who were seeking Can$100 million in compensation was announced earlier this year.”
“However, I can’t confirm the amount paid to these individuals,” he told AFP.
The amount of the settlement was first reported by Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper.
It was listed in a government public accounts document released earlier this month under “settlement of a claim for general damages” launched by three unnamed individuals.
If split three ways, it is equivalent to the Can$10 million in compensation paid to Canadian computer engineer Maher Arar who was tortured in a Damascus prison in 2002, and to former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr.
Arar had been transferred to Syria by US officials based on a Canadian tip. He was later cleared by Canadian authorities.
Khadr had been captured in a battle in Afghanistan in 2002 and held at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay before being turned over to Canada and released in 2015.
The Supreme Court ruled that the government had breached his rights by sharing statements he made to Canadian officials with Washington.