In association with the Bar of England and Wales Human Rights Committee, ECCHR filed on 5 March 2010 an amici curiae brief supporting the petition of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights in the compensation case of Maher Arar. Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was arrested and abducted by US officials in 2002 and brought to Syria. In his one-year detention in Syria he suffered torture and was imprisoned under inhumane and degrading conditions. After his return to Canada a commission of inquiry, established by the Canadian government, shed light on his case.

Arar is now seeking compensation for his rendition to Syria by US officials before US courts. The lower courts dismissed the claim because state secrecy issues were at stake threatening foreign relations and national security. The amici curiae brief supporting the petition to the Supreme Court focuses on investigations of the extraordinary rendition program by parliamentary commissions, courts and other institutions in Europe.

The brief emphasizes the ability of opening investigations and cases although state secrecy issues are invoked. Several decisions by domestic European courts show some limits in the investigations because of national security reasons, but allow for the opening of proceedings and even for their completion. State secrecy may concern small parts of a case, but not a case or investigation as such in its entirety. The amici curiae brief intends to support the US Supreme Court to consider the broader international picture of extraordinary rendition in its decision. The USA as author and driving force of the extraordinary rendition program has to enable the access to remedies to compensate the victims of these severe crimes.

See also ECCHR-Publication: CIA-'Extraordinary Rendition' Flights, Torture and Acoountability - A European Approach