OTTAWA - A Canadian woman expressed joy Sunday night after being told that her husband has been released from a Syrian jail, where he's spent more than a year.

But Monia Mazigh also called for a probe into Maher Arar's detention.

Arar with his daughter (file photo)

"Now he is back, but we need his name to be cleared," she told CBC News.

The couple and their two children are expected to be reunited Monday afternoon, either in Ottawa or Montreal. Late Sunday, it was still not clear where Arar's flight would land.

In an earlier statement, Mazigh said she is "very happy" Arar has finally been freed.

Monia Mazigh in a CBC interview Sunday

"It's been 374 very long days, and that means there are 374 important reasons to get to the bottom of how and why this happened," she said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham confirmed Sunday that Arar was on a plane out of Syria and would soon be home. He was expected to stop in Paris before heading to Canada.

Arar was first detained by U.S. authorities in September 2002 while he was changing planes in New York. The software engineer was travelling from Tunisia to Canada.

U.S. authorities suspected him of being a member of al-Qaeda and deported him to his native Syria. While he has both Syrian and Canadian citizenship he hasn't lived in Syria for more than 15 years. Arar was jailed upon his return, but not formally charged.

Both Amnesty International and Arar's wife had lobbied hard to keep Canadian officials focused on the case.

Riad Saloogee, head of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, called for a parliamentary inquiry into the arrest.

Talking to reporters in Ottawa Sunday, Graham brushed off criticism that the federal government failed to put enough pressure on Syria.

"I don't think it would have been done any more quickly by screaming and yelling," he said.

Graham raised Arar's case last Monday with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who said he would talk to officials in Damascus.

Written by CBC News Online staff