Ottawa — After days of mystery surrounding the whereabouts of a Canadian citizen deported by the United States to his native Syria, he has turned up in the Middle Eastern country.

The Foreign Affairs Department said Monday that it had just been informed by the Syrian government that Maher Arar, an engineer, had arrived from neighbouring Jordan.

Spokeswoman Isabelle Savard said Canadian embassy officials were trying to meet with Mr. Arar, who works as a consultant in Ottawa.

She said she didn't know if he was under arrest and she had no details of when he left the U.S. or how he was sent to the Mideast.

Details of Mr. Arar's case are sketchy. He was arrested last month at New York's Kennedy Airport where he was in transit to Canada from Tunisia. He was deported sometime this month on accusations he had links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham has condemned the United States for deporting a Canadian.

Canadian officials have said Mr. Arar was deported without benefit of a lawyer. The lawyer chosen by Mr. Arar on the advice of Canadian consular representatives didn't show up for the dual Syrian-Canadian citizen's immigration hearing Oct. 7 in New York, an official said last week.

Normally, a U.S. immigration court would deport a foreign citizen back to his last point of departure — in this case Zurich — but Mr. Arar was ordered sent to Syria.

Mr. Arar's family in Montreal was expecting him to return Sept. 26 following his trip to Tunisia.

Mr. Arar's supporters in Canada have said he could face severe punishment in Syria because he avoided compulsory military service before leaving the country for Canada as a teenager.

New U.S. laws permit officials to detain Canadian citizens born in Syria and several other Middle Eastern countries, forcing them to provide fingerprints, be photographed and fill out a form detailing their travel plans.

Canada says the law is discriminatory.

Mr. Arar, who came to Canada in 1987 and was naturalized in 1991, made one call to his family on Oct. 3. The family contacted Canadian authorities and Amal Oummih, an immigration lawyer in New York.

Ms. Oummih has said Mr. Arar was confused, scared and emotional when she met him Oct. 5.

She said Mr. Arar told her he was interrogated for several hours by U.S. immigration officials and FBI investigators, and refused to sign an agreement to be deported to Syria.