A suspected war criminal was intercepted at Pearson Airport here when he tried to slip back into Canada.
Konrad Kalejs, 81, was a key officer in the notorious Arajs Kommando unit of the World War II Latvian Security Police.
Kalejs had been scheduled for an Aug. 4 deportation hearing in Toronto. But he voluntarily left the country June 21 for Australia – hours before his visitor’s visa expired.
After he left Canada, his name was added to a watch list of persons who would not be permitted entry into Canada.
Canada’s Immigration Department planned to examine his case within days of his interception at the airport.
“Our goal is to seek a deportation order or immediately remove him from Canada,” Immigration Department spokesman Kevin Sack said.
Kalejs, who is an Australian citizen, was deported from the United States in 1993 after a U.S. appeals court identified him as a high-ranking officer in the mobile killing unit, which murdered tens of thousands of Latvian Jews, Gypsies and Communists during the war.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
