Yoon tortured, Amnesty says
A Canadian Muslim convert imprisoned in Mauritania since 2011 has told Amnesty International (AI) he was tortured into signing a confession that said he intended to join alQaeda in Mali.
“I am innocent and hope I can prove that one day,” Aaron yoon, 24, a former resident of London, Ont., said in a state- ment released Tuesday by Amnesty Canada’s secretary general, Alex Neve, who met him in prison.
“Whatever people think about me because of what my friends have done; whatever people may think of me because they don’t understand the choices I have made — I hope they do understand one thing: No one should ever be tortured and I have been tortured.”
Mr. Neve returned to Ottawa on Tuesday after taking part in an Amnesty delegation that interviewed inmates at three Mauritanian prisons, including the Prison Centrale, where Mr. yoon is held.
In an interview, he said Mr. yoon showed scars and gave a detailed description of torture consistent with testimonies of other inmates who had complained about being beaten into making confessions.
Mr. Neve said he would be asking Canadian officials to pressure Mauritania to investigate the torture allegations and release Mr. yoon unless he could receive a fair trial that did not rely on evidence tainted by torture.
The department of Foreign Affairs has visited Mr. yoon several times in prison. “We do not comment on matters of national security. Allegations of this nature are addressed in the appropriate manner,” a dFAIT official said.
After converting to Islam as a teenager, Mr. yoon left Canada two years ago along with two London high school friends, Ali Medlej and Xris Katsiroubas, also a Muslim convert. They studied together at a Koranic school in Mauritania but Mr. Medlej and Mr. Katsiroubas eventually left and, in January, were killed while taking part in a terrorist attack on an Algerian gas plant.
Mr. yoon was “carrying out some errands” in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott when he was arrested in december 2011, according to Amnesty. denied a lawyer or translator, he refused to answer any questions posed by police.
As a result, he said, he was punched, kicked and hit with wooden sticks until he lost consciousness. Later, his hands and feet were tied behind his back and he was beaten again, he said. “So he agreed to sign a statement confirming that he had been planning to go to Mali to join al-Qaeda,” Mr. Neve said.
The confession was used to convict Mr. yoon last July. His two-year sentence was to end in december but Mauritanian officials now want to increase that to 10 years. He is still awaiting a decision.