Staring out the window of a Toronto hotel room, Joseph Attar is overcome with emotion. After nearly 15 years locked in an Egyptian prison, the chill of Canadian winters is something he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel again.
“I can’t believe I’m home,” he said through tears. “Freedom, back to life, back to life.”
Attar — who originally went by Mohammed el-Attar before converting to Christianity — landed safely at Toronto’s Pearson airport Friday morning. He has not set foot in Canada since January 2007, when he was arrested in Cairo at age 31, during what he said was a vacation to see family.
Now, 45, he’s home and finds himself
