NEW YORK, NY -- December 20, 2004 -- Maher Arar, the Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was secretly sent by U.S. officials to the country he fled many years ago, was honored as Time Magazine Canada’s Newsmaker of the year. Arar, whose story has made and continues to make international headlines, was cited for having single-handedly persuaded Canada to rethink how it balances human rights and security concerns.

On September 26, 2002, Arar was on his way home from a family vacation in Tunisia to his home in Canada when he was pulled aside at JFK airport in New York, detained for 13 days and later deported to Jordan, and then to Syria, where he was tortured repeatedly and held in an underground cell not much larger than a grave for 10 months. He was eventually released, and, working with the Center for Constitutional Rights, launched a media campaign and a lawsuit charging U.S. officials with wrongfully sending him to Syria for interrogation under torture.

Mr. Arar’s case was the first publicly-known example of the practice of “rendition” whereby the U.S. sends foreign nationals to be interrogated to third-party countries that engage in torture. News reports have confirmed other instances of rendition but Arar is the only person known to have survived and told his story.

“I consider it a privilege to know Maher Arar,” said Barbara Olshansky, Deputy Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents him in his suit against the U.S. Justice Department. “Mr. Arar’s unceasing effort to make public the truth reveals a man whose courage and commitment to justice should serve as a model for all of us. His recognition by Time Magazine Canada shows that the World is not ready to accept the violation of human rights as a tactic in the war against terrorism.”

Said CCR President Michael Ratner, “It is a bitter irony that Time Magazine Canada named Maher Arar as its Newsmaker of the Year, while Time Magazine here in the U.S. named the man whose Administration was responsible for Arar’s torture.”

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