Rights groups demand more transparency in torture probe

Secrecy is hampering a federal inquiry into torture allegations made by three Arab-Canadians, says a coalition of rights groups that isappealing to the Harper government to make the proceedings more public.

Headed by former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci, the inquiry is examining the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, who say they were wrongly labelled as terrorists and tortured in Syria or Egypt.

Amnesty International and a coalition of other groups said Tuesday that the inquiry is being stymied by overprotective guidelines established by the Conservative government.

They have voiced their concerns in a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, made public Tuesday.

"In a disappointing twist, however, the government provided Commissioner Iacobucci with terms of reference that require him to do the bulk of his work privately, behind closed doors," Amnesty's Alex Neve said during a news conference.

"Behind closed doors means that the three men and their legal teams are excluded. Behind closed doors means that the organizations, such as all of those present here today, which have been granted status as interveners at the inquiry, are excluded. And behind closed doors means that the public is excluded."

There was noimmediate reactionfromthe Prime Minister's Officeor from Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, whoannounced the inquiry nine months ago.

Appointed as inquiry chief last December, Iacobucci is examining whether the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service provided information to authorities in Syria and Egypt that led to the torture of the three men.

Security clearance difficult to obtain

Most of the inquiry has been held in camera since it began in March.

Iacobucci has denied lawyers for the three men access to the hearings, saying it would be too difficult to obtain special security clearance for them.

The government has made similar justifications for the privacy measures, saying they are meant to protect national security and quicken the inquiry process.

A similar inquiry into the detention and torture in Syria of Canadian Maher Arar was delayed by constant disputes over what evidence could be made public.

"The terms of reference do allow the commissioner to open things up to the public when he believes it is necessary to do so for the effective conduct of the inquiry. To date, that has not happened," Neve said.

Almalki, El Maati and Nureddin all spent time in prison, where they say they were tortured, and were accused of links to al-Qaeda. All were eventually freed and allowed to return to Canada.

All believe that Canadian police or intelligence officers provided information to their foreign captors.

RCMP, CSIS, Foreign Affairs testify

Almalki's lawyer, Paul Copeland, said he wonders whether an inquiry shrouded in such secrecy can actually achieve its goal.

"I don't know how they can deal with (the issue) adequately, from what I know of the process," Copeland said. "Maybe they will. But do I have confidence in it? No."

John Laskin, chief counsel to the inquiry, defended the proceedings so far, which he said have included interviews with some 40 witnesses under oath including members of the RCMP, CSIS and the Foreign Affairs Department.

"This is a process which the commissioner, certainly, believes to be a sound one," he said. "There's always a danger in making judgments based on a snapshot at any one point in time."

He suggested there may be public hearings of some kind this fall, but couldn't say if that would include full testimony by key witnesses and cross-examination by lawyers for the three complainants.

Almalki, an Ottawa-based communications engineer, spent 22 months in custody after his arrest in Syria in 2002.

Kuwaiti-born El Maati was a truck driver who was tortured in both Egypt and Syria. Both men have said that each country claimed they received information from Canadian officials.

Nureddin was the principal of an Islamic school in Toronto and was arrested at the Syrian border as he was returning from visiting relatives in northern Iraq in 2004.

While all three were investigated by CSIS on suspicion of links to terrorism, none was ever arrested here nor had any restrictions placed on their movements in Canada.

Sources say the three men and their lawyers are contemplating whether to withdraw from the inquiry. They are expected to deliver their own news conference byweek's end.