Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi, filed a $35 million lawsuit against the Canadian government for his 14-year detention, local media said Saturday.
According to a statement filed Friday on behalf of Slahi in the Federal Court of Canada, authorities took actions that "caused, contributed to and prolonged (his) detention, torture, assault and sexual assault at Guantanamo Bay," according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Slahi, 51, a Mauritanian citizen who lived in Montreal from November 1999 to January 2000, was investigated by security services during that time.
He claimed that Canadian authorities harassed him during the investigation and forced him to return to Mauritania.
The "false information" about his activities by Canadian officials, led to his arrest and transfer to Jordan, Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo Bay.
The process leading up to Slahi's arrest in Montreal in 2002 started after he prayed at the same mosque with Ahmed Ressam, known as "Millennium plot" because he was an al-Qaeda member and planned to bomb the Los Angeles Airport during millennium celebrations.
Canadian authorities detained and arrested Slahi, who was praying at the mosque in Montreal, on suspicion of terrorism.
US interrogators, suspecting Slahi of membership in al-Qaeda, employed "enhanced interrogation techniques," which are now considered torture. As a result of torture, he confessed to all charges.
Released from Guantanamo in 2017, Slahi is working as a writer in a Dutch theater and has written several books.
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