Key takeaways:
- Mohamedou Ould Slahi says Canadian authorities contributed to his imprisonment.
- Mohamedou Ould Slahi is an ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee who wrote a best-selling book regarding his experiences in the U.S. military jail.
- He was jailed for 14 years and is now suing the Canadian government for its alleged role in his custody.
A man who spent 14 years jailed in Guantanamo Bay is suing the Canadian government for $35 million for its plausible role in the series of circumstances that led up to his detainment, during which he was tortured.
On Friday, a notice of claim filed on behalf of Mohamedou Ould Slahi in the Federal Court of Canada claims that Canadian authorities took measures that “forced, contributed to and prolonged [his] arrest, torture, assault, and sexual assault at Guantanamo Bay.”
Slahi, a Mauritanian national, stayed in Montreal from November 1999 to January 2000, when security services probed him. Slahi, 51, blames Canadian authorities for harassing him during their inquiry, with the pressure forcing him to return to Mauritania.
The heart of Slahi’s claim is that Canadian authorities shared false news regarding his activities and otherwise contributed to events that finally led to his detention. He was transported first to Jordan and Afghanistan and then Guantanamo Bay, where he spent 14 years jailed without charge.
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“Canada’s sharing of bad intelligence flashed a vicious echo chamber,” says the assertion statement. The Toronto Star first reported the claim on Saturday.
‘Enhanced interrogation techniques used
The Attorney General of Canada, which means the government, did not instantly reply to a proposal for comment on Saturday.
Slahi wrote some books during his detainment, including a memoir that formed the basis for the 2021 movie The Mauritanian. Slahi is now a writer-in-residence at a Dutch theatre.
Source – cbc.ca
