Canadian sues US Army for torture and abuse at Iraq detentio

Canadian sues U.S. military for alleged torture
CTV.ca News Staff

A Canadian man who claims he was falsely imprisoned and tortured last year by the American military shortly after the invasion of Iraq is suing the U.S. army for $350,000 US.

Hossam Shaltout, 57, an aerospace engineer and a former resident of Toronto, filed his suit on April 30 with the U.S. Army Claims Office.

Shaltout was born in Egypt and moved to Canada in 1971, Shaltout told The Canadian Press Monday in an interview from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he works. He became a Canadian citizen but then moved to Los Angeles in 1984. He still holds a Canadian passport.

Shaltout says he went to Iraq before the war on behalf of a group called Rights and Freedom International, hoping to persuade Iraqi leaders to step down.

He alleges he was arrested by U.S. troops April 9, 2003 and taken to Camp Bucca, a detention site in southern Iraq. He says U.S. authorities there accused him of being a speech writer and "right-hand-man" of deposed president Saddam Hussein.

Shaltout says he was detained three days in an armoured personnel carrier and beaten. He said he also saw Iraqis being tortured.

He says his brother informed Canadian authorities of his detention but "they did nothing."

Shaltout says he was freed and eventually taken to Egypt. He says he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and can't work properly.

Shaltout's accusation come in the wake of a larger scandal involving alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Photographs of Iraqi prisoners published last week show prisoners being stripped naked, hooded and tormented at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Six U.S. soldiers have been reprimanded and a seventh admonished in connection with the alleged abuse. An investigation has also been called into whether the prisoner abuse was condoned or encouraged by the U.S. military.

Shaltout alleges that one of his tormentors is one of three soldiers who have already been discharged for allegedly abusing prisoners in a separate incident at the Camp Bucca detention centre.