Not exactly our finest hour.

[imported_Aelius]

Feds won't aid Canadian man forced to serve in Syrian army

Nelson Wyatt
Canadian Press

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

MONTREAL - A Canadian engineer who was ordered to serve in the Syrian military after being acquitted of charges in a court has to work out his army duty with the Syrians, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Tuesday.

That's because Abdullah Almalki is a dual citizen of Syria and Canada, Pettigrew said after a trade luncheon in Montreal.

"We often think about the great privilege and right that it is to have two citizenships, but there are responsibilities that come along with the dual citizenship,'' he told reporters.

"That is a case where the gentleman will have to resolve the question of the military service with the government of Syria.''

However, Pettigrew said the Canadian government would do its best to help out in any other aspects and is "promoting the demands of the family'' to get him back to Canada. Foreign Affairs is monitoring the case closely, he said.

Almaki was detained by the Syrians for two years before being acquitted on Sunday in a Damascus court of charges that Syrian authorities have not made public. A judge said there was not sufficient evidence to convict him.

Relatives have said the charges related to national security.

The Syrian judge did order the 33-year-old to perform 30 months of military service and said he will face arrest if he does not report for duty.

Almalki moved to Canada in 1987 and had not returned to Syria until May 2002 to visit his parents. Before he left he had obtained permission from the Syrian government to visit Damascus and be exempted from his military service, an offer that is made to Syrian-born foreign residents to help promote tourism and allow them to return as tourists without fear of arrest.

But Almalki was arrested at the airport as soon as he arrived and held for 22 months on unspecified charges. His military exemption expired in March 2003, while he was still in custody.

The Toronto Star reported Almalki's family said he was the focus of an RCMP terrorism investigation in Ottawa and for selling computer components before he was arrested in Syria in May 2002.

It's believed his association with Maher Arar was what drew Arar to the attention of Canadian authorities and may have led to his incarceration in Syria.

A public inquiry is now underway to determine what role Canadian officials had in Arar's deportation from New York to Syria and his year-long detention in Damascus.

Like Arar, Almalki has told his family that he, too, was questioned in jail on information that seemingly came from Canadian authorities. Also like Arar, Almalki said he was tortured.

Almalki's family has accused the Canadian government of bungling the case. His brother Youssef went so far as to accuse Ottawa of trying to stop his brother from returning home to avoid the backlash that followed Arar's return last year.

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