WASHINGTON, October 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -U.S. investigators arrested a Canadian citizen and deported him to Syria after accusing him of having links to Al-Qaeda, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Sunday, October 13.

Maher Arar, a 32-year-old Canadian citizen holding both Canadian and Syrian citizenship, was arrested at New York's Kennedy Airport on September 26, subjected to a series of lengthy interrogations for allegedly having links with Al-Qaeda, then deported to Syria, where he had lived until the age of 17, CAIR said.

Arar’s family had no idea what happened to him. "He just disappeared," Arar's wife told CAIR.

"The Canadian Embassy in Washington is vigorously pursuing the questions of the whereabouts of this Canadian citizen at a very senior level," Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said.

"This was a breach of Canadian sovereignty," said Riad Saloojee of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada. "This deportation was illegal, and it has placed the life of a Canadian citizen at risk. We are gravely concerned about the U.S. deporting a Canadian citizen without consulting the Canadian government."

At the time of his arrest, Arar was traveling to Montreal after a visit to his wife's family in Tunisia. After being seized by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers at the airport, he was jailed at New York's Metropolitan Detention Center.

"This is a very, very strange case," said Michael Edelson, an Ottawa lawyer who knows Arar. "You have to ask yourself what's going on when the U.S. is able to take a Canadian citizen and send him to Syria without any kind of representation." Mr. Edelson asserted that Arar is a much respected solid citizen.

Sources familiar with the case said Mr. Arar had been subjected to a nine-hour interrogation after being arrested, with no lawyer present. He was accused by American investigators of knowing a suspected terrorist in the Ottawa area, CAIR reported.