Amanda Lindhout faces fears, forms unlikely friendships, essays outline

Amanda Lindhout’s face is once more plastered all over the news but this time it’s the Alberta journalist who is doing the writing and not the reacting. She’s featured in two Canadian publications: Flare and Maclean’s.

For the fashion magazine, she wrote a personal diary of a mountain trek she took in the summer to deal with the news that one of her alleged Somali captors had been arrested on Canadian soil. His arrest shook away some of the peace she had regained in the six years since her release.

The piece recounts the hike in what she calls her “happy place” described as the “flower-filled canyons in the Markha Valley” in a remote part of northern India.

Lindhout spent 15 months in captivity after being abducted in August 2008 — along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, her driver and her translator — while reporting in Somalia. The Somali driver and translator were freed in January 2009.

Lindhout’s and Brennan’s families paid a total of $600,000 in ransom and also had to hire a British security company to oversee their release, which occurred on Nov. 25 that same year.

Her horrific experiences of abuse and sexual assault were recounted in her bestselling 2013 book, “A House in the Sky.”

On June 12 — Lindhout’s 34th birthday — the RCMP arrested Ali Omar Ader in Ottawa after luring him to Canada.

Ader had apparently contacted both Lindhout and her mother last year — he had always wished to come to Canada. That’s when Lindhout reached out to the RCMP.

Lindhout, who wasn’t immediately available for comment, said she decided to return to her “happy place” where she spent her 30th birthday in order to prepare for the brutal details that would come out once more when Ader’s trial begins.

‘Erratic and bullying’

The RCMP say Ader was one of the main negotiators for the Islamist group that held Lindhout. She says he wasn’t one of the men who assaulted her but told the Ottawa Citizen after learning of his arrest that he was a “leader, he knew about what was happening and allowed it to continue.”

Ader’s trial is expected to get underway sometime next year. Little has been divulged since his arrest except that he faces the charge of hostage-taking which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

In addition, he is seeking Legal Aid since he claims he has no money to pay for his defence. Legal Aid Ontario will cover the legal defence for visitors and those who are not Canadian citizens. But it’s still unclear, at this point, who is representing him.

In other interviews, Lindhout describes Ader (whom she knew as “Adam”) as “erratic and bullying,” calling her mother several times a day at all hours.

Lindhout says seeing his face brings her a mixture of fear, anger and relief.

She reveals that she has spent six years in therapy, still being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, which include constant anxiety, flashbacks, nausea and nightmares. Her digestive system is also in a mess, causing her to become a vegan.

Despite the continuing fallout from her captivity, Lindhout continues to speak of forgiveness and peace in her many talks around the world. She also started a nonprofit organization to benefit Somali women through education.

Unlikely friendships

While traversing the world for her speaking engagements, Lindhout still works occasionally as a journalist. In this week’s Maclean’s magazine, she pens a piece about her deep friendship with two other Canadians: Omar Khadr and Rinelle Harper.

Khadr was 15 when he was captured by American forces in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay for 10 years. He was released on bail on May 7, 2015, and is appealing his conviction.

Harper, 16, survived a vicious beating and sexual assault in Winnipeg last November. The teenager, who was studying at a Winnipeg boarding school for aboriginal students, had been left for dead on the banks of the Assiniboine River. Her family flew in from their home in Garden Hill, Man., to be with her while she recuperated. During that time, the family house burned down. Harper is planning to attend university in Halifax.

“Whether we like it or not, Omar, Rinelle and I all have a public stage — an opportunity, that is, for people to hear us,” Lindhout writes.

“Is it a responsibility?… The great temptation is to try to put our trauma behind us and live a ‘normal’ life, but all three of us know there is little normal in what has happened so far. Why should the future be normal, either?”