Taliban - all of which Almalki said seemed like ridiculous claims. In 1999, he expanded his business and rented office space in a business park, also he expanded his business into the cellphone market . In 2000, and again following the September 11, 2001 attacks, CSIS agent Violaine Pepin spoke to him to ask about a Muslim associate with a pilot's license with whom Almalki had flown to Hong Kong in 1999 to sell radios in the final weeks of Y2K. After Maher Arar had moved back to Ottawa, he had a meeting with Almalki on October 12, 2001. They met at the Mango Café, a popular shawarma restaurant in a strip mall and talked about doctors and bought a print cartridge together. The following month, Almalki flew to Malaysia to visit his mother-in-law. In January 2002, Almalki was one of seven targets of simultaneous search warrants by Project O Canada. It was found later through court document that these search warrants were obtained by provided a judge false information obtained under torture, and without telling the judge where the information came from. Arrest in Syria On May 3, 2002, Almalki arrived in Syria for the first time since he was a child, to visit his ill grandmother. Upon his arrival he was arrested on suspicion of terrorist connections. His arrest was based on information sent to the Syrians by the Canadian government. During the time Almalki was in a Syrian jail, he was not asked anything related to Syrian interests. Most questions were about his life in Canada. In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation shortly after Arar's release from Syria, Arar described encountering Almalki in prison, weak, emaciated and suffering from the effects of torture. Almalki was released on $125 bail in March 2004 and the Syrian State Supreme Security Court acquitted him of all charges in July 2004. Almalki returned to Canada after the acquittal. Almalki's case was taken up by many organizations in Canada, including Amnesty International. The Canadian government convened an inquiry into the role Canadian authorities may have had in his case, headed by the Honourable Frank Iacobucci. The inquiry, concluded in 2008, also included the role of Canadian officials into the cases of Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin. The Canadian government inquiry into the Arar affair indicated that the Canadian government had sent questions to Syrian military intelligence for use in his