Arwad al-Boushi

{{Short description|Canadian oil worker}}

Arwad al-Boushi (born 1958/59) is a Syrian-born Canadian oil-industry worker.{{cite web

| url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060110.wxfreed10/BNStory/International/

| title=Canadian 'recovering' after Syrian incarceration: Businessman reunites with son in Toronto, won't comment on 3½ years spent in prison

| work=The Globe and Mail

| date=January 10, 2006

}} He is notable for being at the center of the controversy over the detention and torture of Canadian citizens that has been attributed to Canadian counter-terrorism officials.

{{cite news

|url=http://www.caircan.ca/oped_more.php?id=1345_0_10_0_C

|publisher=Ottawa Citizen

|title=There's nothing sinister or secret about what we do

|date=January 17, 2005

|author=Riad Saloojee

|author-link=Riad Saloojee

|accessdate=2007-05-25

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811215643/http://www.caircan.ca/oped_more.php?id=1345_0_10_0_C

|archivedate=2007-08-11

}}

{{cite web

|url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/15/157218

|date=October 15, 2004

|title=Amnesty Calls for Release of Syrian Canadian Jailed in Damascus for Over 2 Years

|publisher=Democracy Now

|accessdate=2007-05-25

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509093606/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04%2F10%2F15%2F157218

|archivedate=9 May 2007

|url-status=live

}}

Al-Boushi wanted to visit Syria to visit his seriously ill father in 2002.

Al-Boushi had been

involved with the banned Muslim Brotherhood when he was a teenager.

Prior to his departure Syrian authorities assured him his involvement with the banned The Muslim Brotherhood when he was a teenager, in the 1970s would not be a problem for him in 2002, over two decades later. He was nevertheless captured.

Al-Boushi was tried before a Field Military Court, "whose procedures fall far short of international standards for fair trials."

{{cite web

|url=http://www.amnesty.ca/take_action/actions/syria_arwad_al_boushi.php

|title=Syria: Arwad Al-Boushi

|publisher=Amnesty International

|accessdate=2007-05-25

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225520/http://www.amnesty.ca/take_action/actions/syria_arwad_al_boushi.php

|archivedate=2007-09-27

}}

Canadian authorities ostensibly conducted a long diplomatic campaign to pressure the Syrian authorities for his release.

{{cite news

|url=http://www.canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/5420.shtml

|title=Pettigrew turns up the heat on Hezbollah

|author=Mark MacKinnon

|author-link=Mark MacKinnon

|date=February 12, 2005

|work=The Globe and Mail

|accessdate=2007-05-25

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021205656/http://www.canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/5420.shtml

|archivedate=2007-10-21

}} However it is also known that Canadian authorities deliberately leaked al-Boushi's name as a terrorist to CTV News, falsely suggesting he had been flagged after Maher Arar "provided information" to his Syrian interrogators.Pither, Kerry. "Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror", 2008.

As part of a general Amnesty al-Boushi was freed from Syrian custody on

{{cite news

| url=http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20051107/boushi_damascus_syria_051107?hub=TorontoHome

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522124216/http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20051107/boushi_damascus_syria_051107?hub=TorontoHome

| url-status=dead

| archive-date=May 22, 2011

| title=Syria releases last of five detained Canadians

| publisher=CTV

| date= November 7, 2005

| accessdate=2007-05-25

}}

According to Dan McTeague, the parliamentary secretary for the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry, who played a role in the Canadian government efforts to secure his release:

{{quotation|"He's in very good spirits, clearly delighted with the fact that he has been released,"}}

Al-Boushi returned to Canada on December 23, 2005.

He says he does not know Maher Arar, Abdullah Amalki, Ahmad El Maati or Muayyed Nureddin, four other foreign-born Canadian Muslims the Syrians had imprisoned.