NEW YORK, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Canada must have known that Libyans had tortured a dual national while he was in custody for eight years on terrorism charges, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch said it has learned that Mustafa Krer, 46, was likely tortured by Libyan authorities while he was in Libyan custody for suspected terrorist ties from 2002-10.
Krer told the rights group that Canadian interrogators had visited him at the Abu Salim prison near Tripoli. He claims to have been beaten with sticks and cables by Libyan authorities and confined to a "steel box" for up to five days at a time.
Krer said Canadian authorities were present during interrogations conducted by the Libyans but stressed he wasn't mistreated by the Canadian interrogators.
Nevertheless, Andrea Prasow, a counter-terrorism lawyer at Human Rights Watch, said it was troubling that agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service were present during interrogations.
"Canada's apparent decision to interrogate a suspect in the custody of (Moammar) Gadhafi's forces is deeply troubling," she said in a statement. "CSIS did not torture Krer but they must have known that the Libyans probably did."
The rights organization said a mass grave near the Abu Salim prison was likely from a massacre there in the 1990s.
