Iacobucci refuses standing to Benatta and Omary.

This is unfortunate but not surprising since the inquiry was specifically called to investigate three other people and Iacobucci is going to be hard pressed to finish doing even that within his time frame. However, there should be an investigation of Benatta and Omary as well since they also seem to have suffered from the actions of Canadian authorities. Sallot's article neglects to mention that Benatta claims that he did not go back to the US voluntarily as claimed by Canadian authorities. In effect in this case he was rendered to the US where he spent years in jail.

Algerian defector loses bid for federal inquiry
JEFF SALLOT

OTTAWA -- An Algerian air force defector who says he was illegally deported from Canada to the United States has lost his bid to have his case investigated by a federal commission of inquiry.

Benamar Benatta, 32, who was held by U.S. authorities as a terrorism suspect for almost five years, asked the inquiry commissioner to add his case to that of three Canadian Muslim men who claim federal officials were involved in their imprisonment abroad.

However, his request was denied yesterday by Commissioner Frank Iacobucci, the former Supreme Court of Canada judge who was appointed by the government to investigate the three other cases.

In a written ruling, Mr. Iacobucci said the cabinet order establishing the commission is specific and limited to the cases of Abdullah Almalki of Ottawa and Torontonians Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin.



Mr. Iacobucci, who was appointed in December, faces a relatively tight deadline to wrap up his inquiry by January of 2008. He hasn't started hearing witnesses in any of the three cases.

All three men were detained in Damascus in the same prison where Maher Arar was imprisoned and tortured. They say they were interrogated and tortured on the basis of information that could only have come from Canadian sources.

Mr. Benatta lives in Toronto and is seeking political asylum in Canada. Immigration officials granted him temporary residency last summer after they were unable to locate legal papers that might have justified his deportation in 2001.

Mr. Benatta, who was a lieutenant in the Algerian air force, deserted while on a training course in the United States in 2001. Fluent in French, he felt his asylum and resettlement chances were better in Canada than in the United States.

He crossed the border at Fort Erie, Ont., on Sept. 5, 2001. Six days later, he was still being held for identification and processing at a Canadian immigration detention centre when terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

Canadian officials say Mr. Benatta voluntarily agreed to be returned to the United States, where he spent nearly five years at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the same lock-up where Mr. Arar was held before he was deported to Syria.

In his ruling, Mr. Iacobucci also turned down the application for standing of Mohamed Omary, a Montreal man who says information from Canadian agencies resulted in his detention in Morocco for two years.

However, Mr. Iacobucci granted intervenor status to several human-rights organizations and the Canadian Arab Federation. This will allow the groups to call witnesses and make presentations on questions of policy.

Mr. Iacobucci will hold a hearing April 17 to discuss procedural issues with the participants. One of the issues is how to make sure the interests of the three men can be protected when hearings are held secretly for national security reasons. The government said secrecy should be the rule and openness the exception to safeguard national security.