Drug dealer’s refugee status revoked

KHAN, SHARIF OR IQBAL? JUDGE REJECTS PLEAS FROM SMUGGLER, SUSPECTED FORGER

Aman granted refugee status in Canada in 1996 has been fingered as an international heroin trafficker globetrotting under multiple aliases, while his lawyer insists he is being framed by the same corrupt Pakistani officials who forced him into exile in the first place.

Saleem Khan has been known in Canada as a 55-year-old Montreal father, husband and businessman who fled Pakistan fearing political violence after the assassination of his father.

He has also been known in Germany as a forger and drug convict from Afghanistan named Sayeed Sharif; and a Pakistani official says he is really Arshad Iqbal, a wanted international heroin trafficker accused of funnelling US$49 million in drug profits to Pakistan.

Khan came to Canada in 1996 and claimed refugee status.

He declared he was born in Pakistan in 1959, had never used any other name, was never convicted of any crime in any country and he had not previously requested refugee status. He said he needed protection from political opponents targeting him after his father was killed in 1995. His claim was accepted in 1997.

In 2001, however, Canadian authorities received two anonymous “poison pen” letters contradicting Khan’s declarations.

The letters alleged he was married, had children and used different names around the world: in Pakistan, Germany, the United States and Canada. The letters said he had previously sought refugee protection in Germany, and was convicted there for smuggling heroin. The letters alleged he travelled to the United States and transferred US$5.9 million in drug money from Canada to Pakistan.

Canadian authorities investigated and were told by German officials that Khan’s fingerprints matched those in Germany of Sayeed Sharif, born in 1949 in Afghanistan, who was charged with document forgery and drug offences, and that Sharif’s asylum claim in Germany was refused three years before he arrived in Canada.

The Canadian government moved to rescind his refugee status in 2005 but withdrew the application in 2008.

About that time, Khan applied for permanent residence in Canada, acknowledging he originally lied to Canadian officials: he admitted he used the alias Sayeed Sharif in the past, that he was convicted and incarcerated in Germany and had previously sought refugee protection there.

Things then became even more complicated.

In 2011, in response to Canadian inquiries, Pakistani officials said Khan is also known as Arshad Iqbal, a wanted drug trafficker living and travelling abroad under a false name and using false documents. Iqbal was arrested in 1994 when he was allegedly found with nine kilos of heroin in a suitcase. During his trial in 1995, Iqbal sought treatment in hospital and escaped.

Pakistani authorities said Iqbal sent US$5 million from Canada to Pakistan and there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

Canada then moved again to cancel his refugee status and deport him.

At hearings before the Immigration and Refugee Board, Khan’s Montreal lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, contested information submitted by the government and presented documents shedding doubt as to whether his client was Arshad Iqbal.

Istvanffy said there was sufficient proof Khan is not Iqbal and that the real Iqbal was arrested and released in Pakistan, including court documents from Pakistan and pictures of Iqbal in jail that prove that the real Iqbal had already surrendered to Pakistani authorities.

After a postponement for medical reasons involving Khan, the IRB hearings resumed but did not go well for Khan. Istvanffy sought a further postponement but was denied, and the case proceeded without testimony from witnesses Khan had planned to call, court documents say.

The IRB then accepted the government’s application that Khan’s refugee status should be rescinded. In fact, the IRB deemed the man to not really be Saleem Khan.

Khan appealed the decision to the Federal Court of Canada, claiming the IRB had denied him procedural fairness and natural justice by not allowing his full case to be heard, and arguing the decision was unreasonable.

In a decision released this week, Federal Court Judge Roger Lafrenière dismissed Khan’s appeal.

Lafrenière rejected Khan’s argument that he couldn’t possibly be Iqbal because Iqbal had been in custody in Pakistan at the same time Khan was in Canada, declaring it “nothing more than a red herring” because it didn’t much matter to the final outcome: Khan had provided false information on his original refugee claim and everyone agreed that was true, even Khan.

Khan and Istvanffy are dismayed with the decision.

In an interview, Istvanffy said the same people in Pakistan involved in his father’s death cooked up the information that Khan is the Pakistani heroin trafficker.

“We will appeal this to the end of the earth because my client’s life is clearly at risk and they got it wrong,” said Istvanffy.