A former colonel with the Palestine Liberation Organization was deported from Canada on Wednesday, after being held in a confinement cell in Montreal for four months without a refugee hearing.
Mahmoud Abu Shandi, 37, who came to Canada with his wife, Dalilah, on Oct. 18, was taken from the Parthenais Detention Center and flown out of the country to be returned to Algeria.
Dalilah Abu Shandi was permitted to remain in Canada and to follow the regular procedure for refugee claimants. She gave birth to a son here three months ago.
Abu Shandi was deported despite claims that his life would be in danger if he was returned to Algeria.
He had apparently been a high-ranking officer in the PLO’s military wing, Al Fatah, and said he had a falling-out with the leadership over PLO support for Iraq during the Persian Gulf War.
Several of his dissident colleagues had been killed already, he said.
Abu Shandi and his wife traveled to Canada via Norway, using false Italian passports. But upon arrival they immediately gave officials their true names and applied for refugee status.
Still, both were placed in immigration detention centers.
Abu Shandi was removed from the country under a rarely used clause in the Canadian Immigration Act that permits confinement and deportation of anyone considered a security threat.
A hearing is not required and evidence against the claimant need not be divulged to the claimant or the claimant’s lawyer. A federal court backed the minister’s ruling in January.
Dalilah was reported to be distraught when notified by telephone that her husband had been deported.
She had last spoken with him at 10:30 a.m. the previous day, when he called from Parthenais and said that he knew nothing of plans to deport him. Then, at noon, another prisoner called her to say that her husband had been removed from the center.
She telephoned immigration officials, who admitted that her husband had been deported, but would not tell her where. Early Wednesday, Abu Shandi telephoned his wife from Italy, told her what had happened and said that he was headed for Algeria.
Canadian immigration authorities have been refusing comment on the matter. Messages left with Canadian immigration officials went unanswered.
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