Opinions | Editorials
Rendition victim deserves justice
It adds insult to injury to deny Arar the right to sue the US government
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 November 4, 2009
An Appeals Court in New York ruled earlier this week that a Canadian citizen who was detained at John F. Kennedy Airport and later sent back to Syria cannot sue the US government.
An extensive and expensive official inquiry in Canada has already cleared Syrian-born software engineer Maher Arar of any links to terrorist organisations, and has paid him $10 million (Dh36.7 million) in compensation for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's part in supplying misinformation about him to US security authorities.
Arar is the highest profile innocent person to be subjected to the former Bush administration's policy of ‘rendition' — secretly taking people to other countries for questioning and torture.
In essence, the policy of rendition is nothing more than state-sanctioned kidnapping: It is secretive, unjust and inhumane and the blackest stain on the US human rights' record.
The US Appeals court is simply wrong in its conclusion that, as a foreigner, Arar cannot avail of the US justice system to sue the administration. It was this same justice system that allowed a Canadian national to be a victim of state-sponsored kidnapping.
Arar is an innocent man. He has suffered at the hands of a vindictive system. He deserves compensation. And justice.
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