Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen who has spent over a year in a Syrian prison. This happened because the U.S. immigration officials suspected that he was a terrorist, when he was traveling on a Canadian passport in September of 2002. He had departed Tunis, where he was vacationing with his family, traveling on a Canadian passport. While on a flight to Montreal, Canada, he was detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, while on a stopover in New York. He was deported to Syria on October 7 from New York. The Canadian government was not contacted about Mr. Arar’s case until after he had been deported.

Mr. Arar was held in detention by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service with only limited access to counsel. He was deported in a hearing where he had no legal representation. He did not have a Syrian passport, was traveling on a Canadian passport and is a Canadian citizen. But the U.S. Government claimed to have deported him to the country where he was born. This was despite the fact that a few weeks later, in November of 2002, the U.S. Government announced a suspension of the requirement of fingerprinting and photographing of Canadian citizens traveling on Canadian passports, even if they were born in one of a series of listed countries, connected to terrorism.

Maher Arar came to the United States in late 1980s. Mr. Arar has a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from McGill University and a master’s degree from INRS Telecommunications in Montreal, Canada. He was employed in Ottawa as a telecommunications engineer. He has two young children, and his wife has a PhD in mathematics from McGill University. At present, representations are being made internationally in order to successfully secure the release of Maher Arar to Canada as soon as possible.