OTTAWA - Amnesty International says it supports the claim of a Canadian man that he has been tortured whilst behind bars in the North African country of Mauritania.
Alex Neve, head of Amnesty's Canadian branch, said he believes the torture allegations made by 24-year-old Aaron Yoon, who has been in a Mauritanian prison since 2011 on terror-linked charges.
Neve has just finished a 10-day trip to Mauritania where he met Yoon, who denies all the charges against him and says he was tortured.
He is accused by prosecutors of links to terrorists who attacked an Algerian gas plant in January in an incident that ended with the deaths of the 37 hostages and 29 terrorists.
The terrorists included two Canadians from London, Ont., who were found dead at the plant after it was stormed by Algerian troops.
Mauritanian prosecutors want to increase Yoon's sentence to 10 years because of what they say are his links to Algerian plot.
