Monia Mazigh, who is credited with helping to free her husband, Maher Arar, from a Syrian prison, has announced that she wants to run for the NDP in the next federal election.

With party leader Jack Layton by her side, Monia Mazigh told reporters Wednesday she'll try to win the party's nomination in the riding of Ottawa South.

If she secures the nomination, she will run against Liberal candidate David McGuinty, the Ontario premier's brother, for the seat.

Mazigh, who moved to Canada from Tunisia in 1991, told reporters that she didn't choose at first to be a public figure, but the campaign to release her husband convinced her to work for others.

"I think it is one of my personal duties, as a Canadian, to do something to help people around me,'' Mazigh said. "It is a good opportunity to take. . . what I have learned and my experience to help people."

Layton said Mazigh brings to the NDP "a wisdom that is really quite extraordinary.''

"I think she's captured the imagination of Canadians in an important way."

Mazigh has no political experience but her battle for Maher Arar's freedom won her widespread public admiration and sympathy. She is a mother of two and has a PhD in finance from McGill University.

She has said that her interests range beyond the Middle East and prisoners' rights, and include economic issues, particularly as they pertain to families.

The NDP regards Mazigh as a star candidate because of the human rights fight she and Arar have been waging amid new terrorism measures in Canada and the United States.

Mazigh's husband was deported in 2002 to Syria by the United States, on suspicion of terrorism. He was never charged but was imprisoned for months in Damascus, where he says he was tortured.

Mazigh openly and vehemently declared her husband's innocence. She joined human rights groups in an intense campaign to convince the Foreign Affairs department to press for his release. Following pressure from the Canadian government, Syria agreed to let Arar go last fall, without explanation.

Upon her husband's return, Mazigh has appeared by his side at news conferences, criticizing Ottawa and urging the government to convene a public inquiry.

Prime Minister Paul Martin agreed in January to hold the inquiry to investigate the actions of Canadian officials in Arar's deportation and detention.

Justice Dennis O'Connor, who led Ontario's Walkerton tainted water inquiry, will head the probe. It is not clear when it will begin, or who will be called to testify.

Mazigh is the second high-profile catch landed by the NDP in the Ottawa area. Ed Broadbent recently returned to active politics.

Broadbent, who led the NDP from 1975 to 1989 and spent seven terms as the MP for Oshawa, has won the party's nomination to run in the riding of Ottawa Centre.

Martin has set Nov. 29 for a byelection in the riding, although it's virtually certain the vote will never be held, because a general election will be called before then.