Canadian tortured in Syria victim of US conspiracy

US: A Canadian man wrongly accused of terrorism and sent to be tortured in Syria was the victim of a high level US conspiracy, his lawyer told a court in New York on Tuesday.

The full 12-judge panel of the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals heard Maher Arar's lawyer outline accusations that top officials were behind the 2002 deportation of the Syrian-born Canadian software engineer. "There was an intentional conspiracy to subject (Arar) to torture and there was an intentional conspiracy to keep him from having access to the courts," attorney David Cole said.

The appeal followed the same court's earlier decision to reject the lawsuit, with a three-judge panel bowing to government concerns that the case would endanger national security.

The re-hearing of the case puts a spotlight on President George W. Bush's practice of "extraordinary rendition," in which individuals suspected of links to terrorists or militants have been detained without charge and handed to Governments known to make frequent use of torture.

NEW YORK, Wednesday, AFP