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A suspected high-ranking Iranian official caught living in Canada appeared at his deportation hearing on Thursday as the regime he is accused of serving faced growing condemnation for killing protesters.
Before arriving in Canada, the Iranian citizen was a senior member of his government, according to the Canada Border Services Agency, which has asked the Immigration and Refugee Board to order his expulsion.
But as the deportation case was about to get underway, the alleged Iranian official asked the Refugee Board to ban news reporters from his hearing and to instead move the case behind closed doors.
Global News was not permitted to hear his lawyer argue for a secret hearing. The news outlet was only let into the hearing long enough to argue that the case should remain a matter of public record.
The IRB later banned reporters from publishing his name. No explanation for the decision was given. All “submissions, documents, or any other records in this proceeding” were also part of the ban.
The publicity-shy Iranian is the latest alleged top regime member to face a deportation hearing under a 2022 federal policy banning Tehran’s officials from the country.
Canadian officials say they have found more than two dozen others.
Iranian-Canadian activist Azam Jangravi said those who held “high-level” positions in the Islamic republic government “should be deported” and the cases should be open to the public.
The case is the first against an alleged Iranian official known to have come before the IRB since Iranians took to the streets in December in the country’s largest uprising since the 1979 revolution.
Forces loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reportedly killed thousands of demonstrators in an attempt to suppress the protests calling for the ouster of the Islamist government.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said Iran’s violence against its own citizens “must end,” and that Ottawa was working on new sanctions. “Canada stands with the brave people of Iran, for as long as it takes.”
Those forced to flee Iran have long complained that high-ranking officials who helped keep Khamenei’s repressive government afloat have been turning up in Canada and treating it as a “safe haven.”
Videos that have made their way out of Iran show crowds chanting that members of the regime had sent their families to live here in safety. “Their child is in Canada, our child is in prison,” they shouted at one protest.
Canada barred “senior members” of the regime from the country more than three years ago, after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, was killed while in the custody of Iran’s religious police for publicly showing her hair.
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Since then, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has cancelled 236 visas of Iranian officials, and the CBSA has located 26 living in Canada who they allege merit deportation proceedings.
Just one deportation in more than three years of trying
But immigration enforcement officials have struggled to expel them, with only a single Iranian official sent back to his home country so far. In five cases, the IRB opted to let them remain in Canada.
Most of the hearings have been held in secrecy.
Only four of the officials have been publicly identified to date, including Seyed Salman Samani and Majid Iranmanesh, who were ordered out of Canada.
Elham Zandi left the country voluntarily, while Afshin Pirnoon, former director general of Iran’s roads ministry, was permitted to remain in Canada.
Global News has applied to open the remaining cases to public scrutiny, but the IRB has granted them confidentiality.
‘Tough talk and inaction’
Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, who represents a Toronto riding with a large Iranian population, said “robust” government measures were deterring regime members from coming to Canada.
As for the government’s record of deporting just one regime member in more than three years of trying, he said officials were doing their best.
“These are difficult cases to pursue, as you can imagine. We do live in a country where there is a rule of law,” he said in an interview.
“There are various mechanisms in place. So it’s important that this is done responsibly.”
Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman said the government needed to do more.
“The Liberals talk tough, but their inaction has turned Canada into a safe harbour for senior officials of the Iranian regime with only one deportation in years to show for it,” she said.
“It’s pretty simple: expel regime agents so communities here in Canada can be safe.”
With the Iranian regime facing its most serious challenge since it came to power, Global News asked the CBSA whether it was taking additional precautions to prevent regime members from fleeing to Canada.
“Our strong response to suspected senior officials in the Iranian regime remains in place, and the CBSA continues to take action to stop them from seeking or finding safe haven in Canada,” a spokesperson said.
How Iran spreads terror, intimidates critics
A key source of instability in the Middle East, Iran trains, arms and finances Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militias and Yemen’s Houthis, and sells attack drones to Russia for the war on Ukraine.
In Canada, Iran has been accused of laundering money and evading sanctions, and the foreign interference inquiry revealed how the theocracy was targeting the diaspora in an attempt to stifle critics.
Activists and journalists in Canada have been targeted, prompting the RCMP to warn former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, an outspoken critic of Tehran, that he was the target of an assassination plot.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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