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A former Toronto resident who disappeared in Kenya several months ago is behind bars in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa where he may face a trial, Ethiopian foreign affairs officials confirmed to Â鶹ӰÊÓ on Tuesday.

Bashir Makhtal was arrested fleeing from Somalia after Ethiopian forces invaded the country last January.

"This Ethiopian source says that Mr. Makhtal is accused of separatist activities in a region of Ethiopia that claims to, in fact, rightfully be a part of Somalia," CTV's Murray Oliver reported from Kampala, Uganda.

"The suggestion is that Mr. Makhtal, along with a number of others, will indeed face trial, although this source was at great pains to point out Mr. Makhtal was not tortured nor have his human rights been abused," Oliver told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet.

On Tuesday, the Ethiopian government acknowledged detaining 41 suspected international terrorists from 17 countries.

Officials also said foreign investigators were given permission to question them, according to an official statement.

"Suspected international terrorists have been and are still being captured by the joint forces of the transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia and Ethiopia," the ministry of foreign affairs statement said.

"Pursuant to a common understanding between Ethiopia and the TFG authorities, some of those captured have indeed been brought to Ethiopia."

Twenty-nine of the suspects have been ordered released by a military court and five already have been freed, the statement said.

Ethiopia said only 12 detainees will remain in custody after the next round of releases.

However, the statement did not specify whether Makhtal was one of those detainees.

"It's completely unacceptable that the government refuses to acknowledge what everyone knows, that he is detained there," Makhtal's lawyer Lorne Waldman told CTV.ca.

"At this point, until the government officially recognizes Makhtal is detained there, and gives Canadian officials access, it is in violation of international law."

Makhtal, a Canadian citizen born in Ethiopia, came to Canada as a refugee and lived here for 10 years before moving to Kenya, where he got married and started a business.

He was on business in the Somali capital Mogadishu when Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia in December to defeat a radical Islamic movement that was threatening to overthrow Somalia's transitional federal government.

Along with thousands of other refugees, Makhtal fled south towards Kenya.

But at the beginning of January, the Kenyan authorities detained Makhtal along with several others at the Kenya-Somalia border. He was held for three weeks in Kenya before disappearing at the end of January.

"Not much has been heard from him although it has been widely speculated he was being interrogated in Ethiopia," Oliver reported.

A New York-based organization, Human Rights Watch, says Makhtal was among at least 34 people deported to Somalia from Kenya on Jan. 20 aboard an African Express Airways flight to Mogadishu.

Makhtal was later shipped to Ethiopia.

Human Rights Watch says Kenyan security forces arrested at least 150 people of some 18 different nationalities at border crossing points with Somalia beginning in late December.

These individuals were then detained in and around Nairobi for periods that violated Kenyan law, the group says.

Human Rights Watch says it is "extremely concerned" that many of them face a serious risk of torture or other mistreatment.

Makhtal's lawyer has expressed fears his client is at risk of abuse.

"It's obviously a matter of grave concern given the allegations of torture that are coming out with respect to Ethiopia and the detention centres where he is being held," Waldman said.

But the Ethiopian government denied accusations Tuesday that it had violated human rights.

"All legal procedures are being followed, and the suspected terrorists have been allowed to appear before the relevant court of law, in this instance before the competent military court," the statement said. "Ethiopia can confirm that no detainee has been subjected to violation of his/her rights."

The statement also criticized human rights and media that followed the detentions.

"Conditions in the real world are murkier that the situation faced by those in an ivory tower," the statement said. "And when those in the ivory tower seek to promote their own agenda under the cover of investigative journalism and the defense of human rights, the situation becomes destructive, even tragic."

With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press