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OTTAWA — A man who was tortured after he and his family lost their bid for asylum and were deported to Libya was told this week to pay $6,800 to cover their removal costs before Canada would issue their visas.

Adel Benhmuda, who was brutalized at the hands of Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces, was told in January that he, his wife and four children could return to Canada after Citizenship and Immigration approved their request for refugee status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

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But what was supposed to take mere weeks turned into months and early Wednesday, their Toronto lawyer received an email from the Canadian Embassy in Paris instructing them to pay up.

“I was really very taken aback by the idea that they would insist on trying to recoup the costs in this particular case,” lawyer Andrew Brouwer said.

“I understand it’s standard policy, but this is such an extraordinary case and Canada already has blood on its hands for what it did in August 2008. To try to ask for the money to cover the costs associated with that, I think is just beyond the pale.”