The Canadian Embassy in Damascus has confirmed that former Ottawa resident Arwad al-Boushi has been freed after nearly three-and-a-half years in a Syrian prison.

Al-Boushi, 46, was the last of five Canadians imprisoned by the Syrians on vague security allegations and the one who has spent the longest in prison.

Syrian officials reportedly released him on Thursday as part of an amnesty of 190 political prisoners ordered by Syria's President Bashar Assad at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, The Globe and Mail reported.

Al-Boushi was seized at Damascus Airport in July 2002 when he flew from Saudi Arabia, where he had been working, to Syria in order to visit his dying father. He has been allowed out of prison only briefly since then to attend his father's funeral.

His release follows a long campaign by the Canadian government, his family and human-rights groups such as Amnesty International to free him.

"He's in very good spirits, clearly delighted with the fact that he has been released," Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary for Foreign Affairs, told The Globe.

"He's healthy and he's looking forward to being reunited with his family."

McTeague told the newspaper he had spoken to Al-Boushi, who is staying with his elderly mother in Damascus, and that the Canadian ambassador had also been in touch with him.

As part of the Canadian government's effort to secure the release, McTeague travelled to Syria in March 2004 to meet with Al-Boushi in prison. McTeague also met with Syrian officials.

It is uncertain when Al-Boushi will receive an exit permit from Syria and where he will go next. His Saudi work visa has expired so he may choose to return to Canada, where he has family.

His wife and children have remained in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during the ordeal.

"Our hope is that he comes back to Canada as soon as possible," McTeague said.

Al-Boushi grew up in Syria and left the country when he was a teenager. He and his wife Jomana eventually settled in Canada, where they gained Canadian citizenship.

They lived in Ottawa from 1989 to 1996 and their three children were born in Canada.

Al-Boushi then left Canada and moved to Saudi Arabia with his family for a better career opportunity.

However his association as a youth with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political opponent of ailing Syrian president Assad and his father, the late Syrian president Hafez Assad, led to his arrest when he returned to Syria more than two decades later.

Human-rights officials said Al-Boushi was tried by a Syrian military court and sentenced to between eight and 12 years in prison. However the charges, the trial and the sentence were all conducted in secret.

Walid Saffour, president of the Syrian Human Rights Committee, said the decision to release the prisoners was an attempt at reconciliation that showed the regime's fundamental weakness.

"The government is fragile and shaky," Saffour told The Globe.

Saffour also said he believed Al-Boushi had been tortured in prison.

Human Rights Watch states that Syria has "a long-established record of torture."

Former Canadian prisoners Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin have all said they suffered abuse by their Syrian jailers.