Media Release

Arar wants Canadian government to bring Almalki home

Read it in pdf here

for immediate release: 27 July 2021

Maher Arar says he's happy to learn that Syria has cleared Abdullah Almalki of the charges against him, but he's urging the Canadian government to do everything it can to bring him back to Canada.

"He's a Canadian citizen and he needs the full support of the country he's lived in for almost twenty years. No human being deserves to be treated the way he was"

Arar, saw Almalki in September 2003 in Sednaya Prison during the last two weeks of his own year-long incarceration in Damascus. "Given the experience I went through, I'm sure that what he needs now is the kind of medical attention and emotional support he can only get in Canada."

If Almalki does return to Canada, he could be an important witness at the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar.

Arar's lawyers say his story is certainly important to Maher's case but they also think Canadians should know and understand everything that has happened to Abdullah Almalki.

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further information:
Kelly Crichton
Media Liaison
Maher Arar Support Committee
613-832-9349 613- 858-8180 (cell)
kellycrichton@sympatico.ca