Abdullah Almalki has accused Canadian officials of having a larger hand in his imprisonment and alleged torture in Syria than they did in the Maher Arar affair.

"The complicity is far greater to the Canadian government than in Mr. Arar's case," the 35-year-old Syrian-Canadian engineer told CBC News on Wednesday from Ottawa.

Abdullah Almalki says he was tortured by Syrian officials.
(CBC)

On Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day appointed former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci to lead an internal inquiry into the cases of Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin and Ahmad El Maati. The three men were detained in Syria and say they were tortured during interrogations.

Day said Iacobucci's mandate will be to determine whether their detention "resulted from actions of Canadian officials, particularly in relation to the sharing of information with foreign countries."

Almalki accused Canadian diplomatic staff, including the Canadian ambassador in Damascus, of facilitating Syrian officials in his detainment and torture over a 22-month period, when he was often confined in a "grave-like" underground cell.

"They did send the questions," he said. "Without knowing the details, I think we might fall into the category of governments that operate in the shadows."

Almalki was arrested after travelling to Syria in May 2003 to visit his dying grandmother. He has said Syrian interrogators beat the soles of his feet with steel cables in their attempts to make him confess to being an al-Qaeda member.

He also said the Syrians told him they were getting their information from Canada.

Calls for Canada to sign anti-torture protocol

Almalki joined representatives from Canadian human rights groups in Ottawa on Wednesday to push Canada to sign the optional UN protocol against torture.

"We need to do everything we can to make sure that this disgraceful act does not take place — not in Canada, not in Syria, not anywhere else," he said.

The protocol states that torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are prohibited and constitute serious violations of human rights. Its signators also recognize that states have the primary responsibility for implementing those articles, according to the UN website.

"What is really required at this point is leadership." said Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada. "If we can't have Canada be part of this system, then how can we expect to get Syria, or China or other nations where torture is practised?"

Neve said Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised in the last federal election to put the issue before a parliamentary committee.

RCMP's role questioned again

Almalki was the main focus of an RCMP anti-terrorist investigation in late 2001 known as Project A-O Canada, in which the agency raided his Ottawa-area home

It was also when Arar — a fellow Syrian-born Canadian engineer — appeared on the RCMP radar for his association with Almalki.

In his main report on the Arar inquiry, Justice Dennis O'Connor found no evidence Arar was ever linked to extremist groups or was a threat to Canada's national security. But O'Connor also said there was no evidence Canadian officials played a direct role in his deportation to Syria by U.S. officials, or his subsequent detention.

Day acknowledged the latest inquiry might lead to more revelations of investigative blunders in the wake of a damaging year for the embattled RCMP that included the recent resignation of Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli.

"There may be an exposure of things that took place under the previous government," Day said Wednesday in an interview with CBC News. 

While Almalki said he wished the inquiry would be held in public, like the Arar commission, he added it was a relief to hear that his case would be reviewed.

"I really hope that the commission will get to the bottom of it," he said.

"It has been a long and painful struggle for years since I was released from jail to get answers, to clear my name and to hold the people who were complicit in my imprisonment and torture accountable."