UN gang associate released over border agency’s objections
United Nations gang associate Aram Ali will be released into the community while awaiting deportation to his native Iraq despite submissions by the Canada Border Services Agency that he is a danger to the public.
Immigration and Refugee Board member Laura Ko has ruled that placing the convicted gunman on strict conditions should protect Canadians while allowing Ali to spend time with his family until he gets the travel documents needed for his deportation.
Ko rejected arguments from CBSA representative Meelan Gene that Ali’s history of criminality and gang association would likely continue if he were to be released.
Gene noted that when Ali shot up the Range Rover of a gang rival outside Surrey’s T-Barz strip club in February 2009, he was on bail on a drug trafficking charge.
If released now, “it is all too likely that Mr. Ali will be tempted by the fast and easy money of criminality once again, which would result in further offences that would endanger members of the public,” Gene said.
She also pointed to comments from B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes, who called Ali “a mercenary for hire who was prepared to shoot a person for money and put other people at very serious risk.”
The 33-year-old was sentenced in December 2015 to 81/2 years for the shooting he carried out on behalf of UN gangster Barzan Tilli-Choli.
The Range Rover driver was injured, but the intended target — Independent Soldier Tyler Willock — escaped injury.
Holmes said “it was by sheer luck that (the driver) or one of his passengers were not more seriously injured or killed.”
With credit for pre-trial custody, Ali got a net sentence of 31/2 years and was transferred to immigration custody this month after serving two-thirds of the term.
The Immigration and Refugee Board ruled earlier that Ali, an infant when he fled Iraq with his family, is not eligible to remain in Canada due to his serious criminality.
Ko noted that Ali abided by bail conditions while living in Calgary from 2011 until he was tried, convicted and sentenced in Vancouver in 2015.
“I think you would likely comply with conditions given your motivation and your past compliance with conditions,” she told him at the conclusion of a daylong hearing.
She ordered Ali to follow conditions imposed on him earlier by the Parole Board of Canada to steer clear of criminal associates, carry only a single cellphone and provide details of his finances to a probation officer. She also imposed a 9 p.m. curfew. Ali’s lawyer Veen Aldosky argued that it would be unfair to hold Ali in custody while it is unclear how long it will take Iraq to issue the travel documents.