A Somali man deported from Canada on Sunday because of his criminal record claims he is being held for ransom by "extremists" who have threatened to kill him unless $100,000 is paid.
Mohamed Said Jama, 40, told CBC News in a phone interview Tuesday he was refused entry to Somalia and is being held, in the dark, on a chartered aircraft at an airport in Bosaso, northern Somalia.
He said "extremists" who surrounded the aircraft have threatened to kill him unless a ransom is paid. "I don't know if I'll survive," he said.
Jama's mother said from her home in the United States that the men holding her son demanded $100,000 from her to spare him.
Jama's lawyer, David Matas, said Canadian officials should have known better than to send his client to a dangerous country in a state of chaos. He said he believes Jama will be returned to Canada.
"That's irresponsible, in my view, that they would go to all the trouble and expense and paying for a charter to get him there without any assurances from the people on the ground who are in charge that he would be allowed entry."
Canada Border Services Agency officials say they have no information to substantiate Jama's claim that he is being held for ransom. CBSA agents accompanied Jama to Kenya and then placed him on the charter plane bound for Somalia.
Feared 'death sentence'
Jama, who came to Canada in 1991 as a refugee, complained before his deportation that being sent back to Somalia would be a death sentence because his father was a reviled high-ranking military official.
Jama was ordered out of the country after being convicted in 2005 of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and robbery for an armed home invasion in Winnipeg, where he stabbed a man in the cheek.
Before that, he served jail time for robbery, public mischief and court-order breaches.
The CBSA made its first attempt to deport Jama last fall, but the effort failed when Jama's agency escorts arrived with him in Nairobi, Kenya, but were unable to arrange a charter flight to Somalia.
Back in Canada, Jama was released on a $2,000 bond but instead went underground until March 19, when police arrested him in the company of alleged gang members.
Matas said Canada shouldn't deport people to Somalia because it's too dangerous. Also, it is estimated that deporting an individual from Canada to Somalia costs about $50,000.
"First of all, it's a tremendous waste of money," said Matas.
"To send him over there, and have him come back the first time, and if he comes back the second time, that's even more money thrown away. And secondly … you don't remove someone unless you have a place to send them to."
Source: www.cbc.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment