A former Canada Customs agent who once questioned Maher Arar says she was told that it was unimportant for her to appear at the judicial inquiry into Arar's case, CBC News has learned.

Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria, was detained in 2002 by U.S. authorities who suspected him of terrorist links and deported him to his homeland, where he was jailed and tortured. The case ignited an international controversy and Arar's name was later cleared by the Canadian inquiry, which blamed his deportation in part on the RCMP.

Both the lawyers for the inquiry and Arar's own legal counsel told the CBC they wanted to hear from Rose Mutombo, the customs agent who questioned Arar at the Ottawa airport in 2001 and who currently lives in the United States.

"We felt that Ms. Mutombo had relevant information to give us and as a result we sought to interview her," Paul Cavalluzzo, a lawyer for the Arar Commission, told the CBC.

"We attempted to have her come to the hearings or have her participate in a conference call so that we could interview her and get as much information as possible.

"Government counsel informed us that Ms. Mutombo did not want to participate in a conference call and indeed co-operate in any way with the commission."

The inquiry lawyers' subpoena powers didn't apply in the United States. They could have attempted to force Mutumbo to testify through the U.S court system, but decided against it because the process was too complicated and too lengthy.

The CBC tracked down Mutombo at her home in Lawrence, Mass., an industrial community just north of Boston, but she refused to be interviewed for television.

In a telephone interview, however, Mutombo said she wasn't pressured, but did receive advice from a lawyer acting for Canada Customs, who told her it was not important for her to be at the inquiry.

'Did she know something that she didn't want to say?'

Arar's lawyers say Mutombo has an obligation to come forward with whatever she knows and if she has nothing to add, she should make that clear.

"Did she know something that she didn't want to say?" Lorne Waldman told the CBC.

Mutombo was on duty at the Ottawa airport on the evening of Dec. 20, 2001, when Arar returned from a business trip to the U.S.

At the time, the RCMP were investigating Arar for links to terrorism and had placed his name on a watchlist, which meant he was to be thoroughly screened by customs officers.

Mutombo photocopied Arar's identification and travel documents and questioned him about his laptop computer and his Palm Pilot.

Mutombo's supervisor decided the items should be seized. Both were returned to Arar the next day.

Arar's lawyers suspect Canadian authorities illegally searched the contents of Arar's laptop. The RCMP will neither confirm nor deny the charge, saying it doesn't comment on national security investigations.

Arar, a telecommunications engineer who lived in Ottawa, was detained during a stopover at a New York airport as he returned home from a vacation in Tunisia in September 2002. His deportation caused controversy because he is a Canadian citizen, had lived in the country since 1987 and was carrying a Canadian passport — yet U.S. authorities sent him to Syria.

The judicial inquiry's main report, issued in September 2006, concluded there was no evidence Arar was ever linked to extremist groups or was a threat to Canada's national security.

The inquiry slammed the RCMP, saying it provided inaccurate information about Arar to the FBI and U.S. security officials, and that it may have led to his deportation.

In January, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a formal apology and offered a $10.5 million compensation package to Arar and his family, along with money for legal fees.