Egyptian-born engineer arrested in Kandahar, held for over 18 months
Diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks have revealed the bizarre story of a mentally ill Canadian man kept in a U.S.-run prison in Afghanistan for more than 18 months. Khaled Samy Abdallah Ismail was born in Egypt but came to Canada in 1995. He worked as a computer engineer in Ontario before losing his job and launching a series of unsuccessful human rights complaints. Ismail fell off the radar before resurfacing in Kandahar in 2006, where he was arrested outside the governor’s mansion with a suspicious bag full of electronics. Afghan police handed Ismail over to the Americans, who eventually diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. After more than a year and a half in custody, Ismail was apparently transferred back to Canada. A CBC investigation could not determine his current location.