Hani al-Sayegh

As a young man, al-Sayegh had joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but following a "particularly disastrous exercise" where his asthma interfered, he was told to leave the corps. In August 1996, after traveling through Rome and Boston, al-Sayegh arrived in Canada where he applied for refugee and permanent resident status, while living in Ottawa. He claimed to belong to a minority Shi'ite group in Saudi Arabia, where he claimed he and his brother Mohamed had both been tortured by the officials. ==Arrest==

The 28-year-old al-Sayegh was arrested in a grocery store in March 1997, and hired immigration lawyer Douglas M. Baum to defend himself. Canada accused him of driving one of two vehicles which had accompanied the Khobar car bomb, and had waved the bomber forward to indicate the parking lot was safe to enter, and sought to deport him. However, since al-Sayegh was a "frail" man suffering from frequent attacks of asthma, the accusation that he had been a getaway driver was criticised. al-Sayegh argued that he had been studying in Iran for four years, including during the time the bombing took place, and that his phone call to the Iranian embassy on the day of the attacks was simply to help a friend obtain a visa. They also criticised Canada, stating that the arrest actually foiled surveillance efforts that would have been more fruitful. Nevertheless, after being moved from Canada into the United States, he was deported back to Saudi Arabia on October 10, 1999 where it was assumed he would be executed upon arrival. In Saudi Arabia, he was held incommunicado at Al-Ha'ir Prison for ten days, before his wife and children were allowed to visit him in prison. In June 2001, the US Department of Justice issued an indictment accusing several alleged members of the Hezbollah for involvement in the Khobar Towers bombing which included the name of Hani Al-Sayegh, despite the fact that charges against him had been dropped and he had been returned to Saudi Arabia. ==References==