Calgary imam fights to keep refugee status

A Calgary imam facing criminal charges in the United States is still waiting to hear whether he will be able to keep his refugee status in Canada.

Imam Abdi Hersy is wanted south of the border on six counts of criminal sexual misconduct in connection with allegations that surfaced in 2006, when he worked as a respiratory therapist in Woodbury, Minn.

Hersy’s immigration lawyer, Raj Sharma, says the imam denies the allegations and he is willing to face them in an American court.

After learning about the charges, the Immigration and Refugee Board stripped Hersy’s refugee protection status in May 2013. A federal court later set aside that decision, ruling the board made a technical error, and ordered a new hearing, which took place Tuesday in Calgary.

The hearing to decide whether Hersy will lose his refugee status was held behind closed doors, but the Herald applied for a written record of the proceedings.

The board reserved its decision and there’s nothing Hersy can do except wait for the decision to be released, Sharma said.

“The charges in the U. S. are underpinning this application to remove or strip him of his refugee status,” he said. “At the same time, he can’t get to the U. S. to answer to those charges.”

Sharma said the last time Hersy was in the United States, he was deported before his court date.

“He has to deal with all of the fallout of these charges without being able to answer them or address them or challenge them,” Sharma added.

Hersy’s troubles with U. S. law enforcement go back to 2006, when he was accused of fondling the breasts of two female patients at a hospital where he worked as a respiratory therapist. He later lost his license and his job.

The imam claims he was unaware of the allegations until 2009, three years after he arrived in Canada, where he sought refugee status.

Hersy secured that status after arguing his life would be at risk in his home country of Somalia because of his minority status there.

“He’s as interested as anyone to somehow deal with these charges in the U. S., but really, that’s an impossibility,” Sharma said.