Reporter's home searched by RCMP as part of Arar investigation

Last Updated Wed, 21 Jan 2004 22:07:57

OTTAWA - RCMP officers raided the home and offices of an Ottawa Citizen
journalist on Wednesday as part of a criminal investigation into leaks in
the case of Maher Arar.

"I cannot really comment on the specific details of the
investigation," said RCMP Sgt. Jocelyn Mimeault, who acknowledged that
search warrants were executed but have been sealed. Mimeault said police
were conducting an investigation into an alleged breach of the Security of
Information Act by reporter Juliet O'Neill. The act makes it illegal to
communicate leaked secret documents.

Ottawa Citizen editor-in-chief Scott Anderson said the search had to do
with a Nov. 8 story O'Neill wrote on the Arar case. Police took spiral
notebooks, computer hard drives, address books and documents, he said. He
said any seized documents will remain in a sealed evidence bag while
lawyers for the newspaper challenge the search warrants. "We believe
charges are pending although Julie hasn't been charged yet," said
Anderson. "I think this is a black, black day for freedom in this
country. I am outraged."

The search warrants come as Arar, a Canadian citizen who says he was
tortured after being deported to a Syrian prison by the United States, is
set to launch a lawsuit against American officials. Arar and his lawyers
from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights are expected to
announce details about the lawsuit to be filed on Thursday at the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of New York. U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft is among the officials expected to be named in the lawsuit.

U.S. authorities detained Arar at Kennedy airport in New York in September
2002, while he was on a flight back to Canada from Tunisia. He was accused
of having ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and deported to Syria,
the country where he was born.

The CBS News program 60 Minutes II reported on Wednesday night that
Canadian authorities were told of Washington's plan to deport Maher Arar to
Syria and that they approved. The Canadian government announced earlier
this month it would investigate leaks by unnamed government officials who
alleged Arar trained at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan. But Ottawa has
rejected calls for a public inquiry into his deportation.


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