A former Guantánamo Bay detainee, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Friday commenced legal action against Canadian authorities for $35 million over their alleged role in his detention. Slahi’s claim alleges that Canadian security personnel provided false information about him when he was a permanent resident in Montreal in 1999 and falsely accused him of participating in the Millennium Plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport. This information led to his arrest without charges and subsequent torture in prison. While detained, Slahi suffered “physical beatings, sleep deprivation, forced standing, incessant noise, sexual assault, mock assassination, death threats, religious humiliation, and more.”

The defendant is listed as the legal entity of the Attorney General of Canada. The entity includes officials, employees, servants and agents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. David Lametti is the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

The 2021 film The Mauritanian is based on Slahi’s 14 years spent in Guantanamo Bay. The Mauritanian is based on Slahi’s best-selling memoir about his time in the infamous prison. In April 2022, the US Department of Defense announced the repatriation of an Algerian citizen detained at Guantánamo Bay after a 5-year delay.