OTTAWA — Canadian spies quietly visited Syria in late 2002 and got copies of confessions Maher Arar made under torture, the Ottawa man's lawyers contend.

In a submission to the federal inquiry probing Arar's arrest and deportation to Syria, counsel also disclose that Arar's wife Monia Mazigh, now an NDP candidate in the federal election, was questioned about him by authorities in Tunisia. The document indicates one reason Canadian authorities took an interest in Arar was that he happened to be in the United States when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

His lawyers laid out the revelations, the latest pieces of the complex Arar puzzle, in a bid to force the government to disclose all documentation on details of his case now in the public domain.

"You can't seek confidentiality for things that are already public," said Lorne Waldman, one of Arar's lawyers.

Many elements of Arar's story have been disclosed by security officials to the media, lawyers and others involved in the case, so there's no reason the documentation should be kept under wraps, Waldman argues.

The submission will form the basis of a motion to be heard at the inquiry July 5.

"It's not our intent to delay the inquiry at all," said Waldman. "Our desire is to see this thing go as quickly as possible. But it's also our desire to make sure that Mr. Arar and the public get answers."

Arar, 34, was detained by U.S. officials on suspicion of terrorism during a September 2002 stopover in New York as he returned from a family vacation in Tunisia, where his wife was born.

Within weeks the United States sent Arar to his birthplace of Syria, where he was imprisoned for several months before being released.

Arar, who says he was repeatedly tortured into giving false confessions while in custody, denies involvement in terrorism.

In the two confessions, dated November 2002 and August 2003, Arar stated he had received military training at camps in Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, the federal government called an inquiry into the case. It is expected to shed light on the roles played in the Arar affair by the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

In the submission, Arar's counsel say James Lockyer and Michael Edelson, who both represented Arar early in the case, were told by Canadian officials that CSIS was in possession of Arar's initial confession.

Lockyer, who was retained by the government as an observer and who also briefly served as Arar's solicitor, said in a statement that the first confession "was later transmitted to Canada by CSIS who visited Syria in late 2002," according to the submission.

Edelson had two meetings in December 2002 with members of the Joint Security Task Force that investigated Arar.

"In these meetings, the members (of the task force) and Department of Justice revealed to Mr. Edelson that CSIS had received Mr. Arar's statements," the submission says.

Waldman wants the government to table copies of Arar's confessions with the inquiry.

CSIS has denied involvement in Arar's detention or deportation, but declines to say whether it passed information about him to U.S. officials.

Waldman is also seeking information "disclosed to and by" Mazigh during her questioning in Tunisia in 2002 - an encounter that reveals "information about Mr. Arar had been shared with the Tunisian Security Services."

Mazigh, who fought tirelessly for her husband's release, is seeking a federal seat on behalf of NDP in an Ottawa riding.

The submission also notes Edelson was told by Canadian security officials that Arar's presence in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, had raised concerns.

Arar, a telecommunications engineer, says he often travelled to the U.S. on business.