Canadian in U.S. prison may lose citizenship
• A Pakistani-Canadian imprisoned in California over a plot to decapitate employees of a Danish newspaper and throw their heads onto the street is among those targeted for revocation of their citizenship under a controversial new law, the National Post has learned.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 54, is the only one of the 10 Canadians whose citizenship the government is seeking to revoke for terrorism who was convicted by a foreign court, the U.S. District Court in Chicago. He is serving a 14-year-sentence at a prison in San Pedro, Calif.
The former owner of First World Immigration Services, which operated in Toronto and Chicago, Rana was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy in relation to a plot to attack the Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten newspaper for publishing a cartoon depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
He was also convicted of providing material support to Lashkare-Tayyiba, the Pakistani terrorist group that 10 sent gunmen to Mumbai, India, in 2008 to attack major hotels, a train station and a Jewish centre. More than 160 died, including two Canadians.
Rana was living in Illinois when he was arrested in 2009. According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, his scheduled release date is Dec. 28, 2021. Upon completion of his sentence, he would have likely been deported to Canada. Property records list him as the owner of a home in Ottawa.
If his Canadian citizenship is successfully revoked, he would no longer have any status in Canada. The process is expected to take several months and could be subject to appeal. At least three Canadian terror convicts have already launched court challenges against the possible revocation of their citizenship.
According to a source, Rana is among those who have fallen foul of legislation that came into force in May. This allows Citizenship & Immigration Canada to strip convicted terrorists of their Canadian citizenship, provided they are also citizens of a second country.
The Post revealed Saturday that Toronto 18 leader Zakaria Amara had become the first to lose his citizenship.
Another eight convicted of terrorism offences in Canada are still in the revocation process, among them Saad Gaya, who was born in Quebec to parents of Pakistani heritage.
The 10th, Rana, is the only one whose revocation depends on the decision of a foreign judicial system. The legislation applies to those convicted of terrorism outside Canada, but only if the same evidence would have also resulted in a conviction by a Canadian court.
The citizenship law, which is similar to legislation in the United Kingdom and Australia, has become an election issue in recent days, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper defending it during Mon- day night’s leaders’ debate on foreign policy. The Liberals and the New Democratic Party have both pledged to scrap the law if they win the election.
Defence Minister Jason Kenney has said the law was meant to deal with “the worst of the worst.” Those on the list were all active in terrorist groups that plotted attacks in Canada or, in Rana’s case, actually killed Canadians.
Rana was acquitted of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai attack itself. But he was convicted of aiding the group that conducted the attack. He also played a key role in helping an accomplice scout the Copenhagen newspaper for attack.
After his sentencing, U.S. prosecutors said the case showed that those who facilitate terrorism from “a safe distance” would not go unpunished.
Operating in the U.S., Rana “provided critical support” to terrorists, knowing they were plotting attacks overseas, said Lisa Monaco, the U.S. assistant attorney general for national security.