OTTAWA, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Canadian engineer Maher Arar was tortured while in custody in Syria three years ago and still suffers from the abuse, a report said Thursday.
"Arar's psychological state was seriously damaged and he remains fragile," Stephen Toope, a fact-finder appointed by an inquiry said. "His relationships with members of his immediate family have been significantly impaired. Economically, the family has been devastated."
Once a "workaholic" computer engineer in Ottawa with a challenging job he loved, Arar has been for the most part unemployed since returning to Canada from Syria, Toope's report said.
U.S. authorities detained Arar in New York when he was returning from a family vacation in Tunisia in September 2002, accusing him of having terrorist connections, CBC News said.
Though Arar, 35, is a dual citizen of Syria and Canada, he was deported to Syria where he was interrogated for more than a year before Canadian officials finally had him returned to Canada.
