Ahmad Abou El-Maati () (born October 1, 1964) is a Canadian citizen who was arrested, tortured, and detained for two and a half years in Syrian and Egyptian prisons, as a result of deficient information sharing by Canadian law enforcement officials. The Canadian government apologized to Mr. El-maati in 2017, after reaching a monetary settlement with him and two other torture victims, putting an end to nearly 10 years of litigation.
His ordeal began when he was found with a visitor's map to Ottawa and had plans to travel to Syria to get married. This evidence, as well as the post-September 11 fear, led Canadian law enforcement officials to wrongly suspect him of terrorism.
He is the brother of suspected Al-Qaeda member Amer el-Maati.
Biography
El-Maati was born in Kuwait to Badr El-Maati, an accountant, auditor and business consultant from Egypt, and Samira Al-Shallash, a teacher from Syria. The family moved to Beirut, and both Ahmad and his brother were enrolled in a Catholic school.
Ahmad took college courses in electronics, before enrolling at Concordia University for two years where he studied statistics. He received his formal Canadian citizenship in 1986. and drove an ambulance and cooked meals for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's army as it fought against the Taliban in Logar.
Arrest
El-Maati was stopped at the Canada–US border on August 16, 2001, where customs officials found a map of Ottawa listing both government and nuclear research facilities, which was later found to be a government-issued visitor's map left by a previous driver.
Following the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, he was interviewed by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent Adrian White who wanted to question him about the map, and his visit to Syria in April.
The map, an old version, showed government buildings including a Health Canada virus lab as well as a nuclear research facility belonging to Atomic Energy of Canada. However, these offices had been relocated prior to El-Maati's detention at the border. They have since been demolished and transformed into parking lots.
:"The Globe and Mail has learned that the map -- scrawled numbers and all -- was in fact produced and distributed by the Canadian federal government. It is simply a site map, given out to help visitors to Tunney's Pasture, a sprawling complex of government buildings in Ottawa, find their way around."
Government inquiry
The Canadian government has ordered a public inquiry into Mr. El-Maati's and two other men who also experienced detention in Syria. On June 18, 2009, the House of Commons of Canada voted in favour of an official apology and compensation to Almalki, el-Maati and Nureddin. , Ahmad is unable to work.