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TORONTO — A former American soldier who claims he was tortured by U.S. authorities probing the Anonymous hacker collective has been denied asylum in Canada, signalling a forced return to the United States in a bizarre, high-profile case.

[np_storybar title=”” link=””] Read our full, multi-part series on DeHart’s case

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“I cannot imagine any life in a country which has already tortured me,” Matt DeHart, 30, told the National Post Tuesday from an Ontario prison after he learned of the decision.

“Am I now to be given into the hands of my torturers?”

The decision by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) offered him a moral victory — finding no “credible or trustworthy evidence” he committed the child pornography offences alleged by the government — but extended him no protection, denying him refugee status, which would have allowed him to remain in Canada.

The IRB ruled that the United States “has a fair and independent judicial process” available to him where he can continue to fight his criminal charges and press his civil rights complaint.