Arar still fears U.S. arrest Exonerated Canadian's name still on border watch list, spokeswoman says
Oct. 18, 2006. 11:09 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Actress and human rights activist Vanessa Redgrave will present an award to Maher Arar and to the Center for Constitutional Rights in Washington this evening.
But the Syrian-born Canadian engineer will have to accept the 30th annual Letelier-Moffitt human rights award via video link, because he won't be at the ceremony, fearing he'll be arrested again by U.S. authorities.
The Institute for Policy Studies says it's giving the international version of the award to Arar because he's taken bold actions to demand justice for the suffering he endured as a victim of the U-S policy known as extraordinary rendition.
Arar was detained by U.S. officials in New York in 2002, wrongly accused of terrorist links and deported to Syria where he was tortured.
Redgrave, who has met Arar, tells CBC Newsworld if it had not been for Arar's courage and his family's courage, there wouldn't have been an inquiry in Canada and justice would not have been done.
She says he suffered horribly and so has his family.
Redgrave also says Arar's fears of being rearrested in the U.S. are well-founded. She says in spite of all efforts and a protest from the Canadian government to the U.S. government, his name has not yet been removed from watch lists that compel border authorities to pick him or his wife up.
Redgrave says the institute wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney general but didn't get an answer on whether Arar, who was exonerated by last month's inquiry in Canada, could attend the ceremony.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, in addition to its work on the Arar case, is being honoured for its 40-year legal crusade against torture and other human rights abuses.