Family of detained Canadian in UAE calls for release

The 17-year-old Marwa Alaradi of Windsor is willing to go to any length to e Salim Alaradi’s release from a prison in the United Arab Emirates, where the 46-year-old Canadian has been held without charge since last August.

“It’s been difficult to manage both school and fighting for my father, but I have to do that,” she has been quoted by a leading TV channel. “I know my father did nothing wrong.” Salim Alaradi has been behind bars since last August and recently had his detention extended for another 30 days — all without any explanation for why he is being held, his family said. They’re calling on the Canadian government to secure his freedom.

The Libyan-born Alaradi immigrated to Canada from the U.A.E. with his family in 1998, living in Vancouver until he decided to return to the Middle Eastern nation in 2007 to run a home appliance business with his brother.

Alaradi and his family were on vacation last August, on the U.A.E.’s famed Palm Jumeirah island, when their world turned upside down.

The hotel’s reception desk called Alaradi’s room late at night telling him someone from the country’s security service wanted to speak to him, his daughter said. When Alaradi went downstairs with his wife, he was taken away.

“They never told us why they’re taking my father. They never told us the reason,” said his daughter, who called the Canadian embassy’s emergency line as soon as she found out what happened. The family had no idea where Alaradi was being held, or what he had been accused of. Then they got a phone call.

“We didn’t know that he was alive,” said his daughter. “We finally heard his voice, we were happy, but he did not talk about what happened to him freely.”