Ex-Guantanamo detainee sues Canada over detention

Mohamedou Ould Slahi, wrongly suspected of terrorism and imprisoned for fourteen years in Guantanamo, has initiated proceedings against Canada, responsible for his detention.

AP - Alex Brandon

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

The Mauritanian, wrongly suspected of terrorism and imprisoned for fourteen years in Guantanamo, whose story was told in the hit film "Designated Guilty", has initiated proceedings against Canada responsible for his detention.

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Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 51 years old today, believes that “erroneous information” provided by Canada concerning the period when he was a permanent resident in Montreal are at the origin of his detention.

This is revealed by the complaint filed on Friday and consulted by

AFP

.

He is claiming 35 million Canadian dollars in damages for the damages suffered.

The man claims that it was the false information provided by the Canadian authorities that led to his detention in the American military prison where he says he suffered "

 indescribable torture and ill-treatment

 ": beatings, sleep deprivation, assault sex, death threats.

Then the Canadian authorities then allegedly “ 

tacitly tolerated

 ” the torture he suffered and even “ 

used

 ” information from confessions obtained under torture.

Slahi's detention and ill-treatment were prolonged because the receipt and use of coerced confessions by Canadian authorities validated the continued torture and detention

 ," say Mohamedou Ould Slahi's lawyers in their statement. complaint.

Accused of being linked to the attacks of September 11, 2001

The latter wrote his story in a book that became a best seller before being adapted for the cinema.

The film, directed by Kevin Macdonald and starring Tahar Rahim and Jodie Foster, accurately depicts the extreme conditions on the American base.

Arrested in 2001 in Mauritania, he had been successively imprisoned in Jordan and Afghanistan, before arriving at Guantanamo, in what he called in his book a “ 

world tour of torture and humiliation

 ”.

The American authorities accused him of being a member of Al-Qaeda, having participated in the " 

Hamburg cell

 " (in Germany), linked to

the September 11 attacks

.

To read: Guantanamo twenty years later: torture prevents any trial

(with

AFP

)

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