Benatta Coalition for a Public Review

Canada’s First Post-9/11 Rendition Survivor Joins September 12 Vigil to Demand a Public Review

Benamar Benatta, Tortured and Held 5 Years by U.S. Authorities, to be joined by Lawyer and supporters at 150 King West (at York), 12 Noon, Wednesday, September 12, 2007

TORONTO – Six years to the day that he was illegally transferred to the United States, where he was tortured and detained for almost five full years, Benamar Benatta will join the first demonstration in support of his call for a public review of his case on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 12 Noon at 150 King Street West (site of the Regional Ministers’ Offices of the federal government).

While most Canadians are familiar with the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian survivor of rendition to torture, few have heard of Benatta, an Algerian refugee claimant who was handed over to the Americans on September 12, 2001. Canadian officials wrongfully identified Mr. Benatta as a suspect in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 solely based on prejudicial suspicions – he was a Muslim man who knew something about airplanes.

Without a hearing, without counsel and without conducting proceedings in his first language (French), Mr. Benatta was unceremoniously driven over the border in the back of a car and handed over to U.S. officials on September 12, 2001. This was an illegal transfer by the Canadian government.

In the U.S., Mr. Benatta was treated as a suspect in the September 11, 2001 attacks and was imprisoned, abused and held in conditions that the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found could be considered as torture. Despite being cleared by the FBI in November 2001 of any connection to terrorism, he spent nearly five years in detention. On July 20, 2006, Mr. Benatta was finally allowed to return to Canada and has resumed his claim for asylum. His application is currently pending.

Since his return to Canada in July, 2006, Mr. Benatta has sought a public review of his case. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said he would look into the matter, but Mr. Benatta still does not have any answers.

While Mr. Day has shown promptness in responding to the RCMP pension scandal, he has yet to show a similar concern over a case of rendition to torture and illegal detention.

On April 19, 2007, in response to a question about Mr. Benatta, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day responded, “We want to know why this happened”. But up until now, no answers have been forthcoming.

Benatta and his supporters will call on the federal government to immediately convene a public review so that he can get answers about why five years of his life were needlessly stolen, and how future cases of rendition can be stopped.

“I have been waiting for answers for six long years,” said Mr. Benatta. “Why did the Canadian government treat me this way? On September 12, 2001, they handed me over to U.S. officials and forgot about me. They cannot pretend that never happened. I need answers in order to go on with my life.”

“The circumstances of Benamar’s case are the worst I have ever heard,” says his lawyer, Nicole Chrolavicius of bakerlaw. “He was locked away in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn under John Ashcroft’s insidious ‘preventative detention’ regime. He was forgotten by Canada. He was tortured, abused and arbitrarily detained for nearly five years. The continued delays in providing Mr. Benatta—and Canadians alike—with answers in this important case are unconscionable.”

For more information:

Benatta Coalition for a Public Review
www.benamarbenatta.com

Nicole Chrolavicius
Counsel to Mr. Benatta
nicole@benamarbenatta.com