Friday, December 21, 2007
VANCOUVER -- A thrice-convicted Somali refugee who violently raped a Surrey woman in 2005 will remain in custody because he presents a danger to the public, an Immigration Board ruled yesterday.
Adjudicator Marc Tessler told the Vancouver hearing that Mohamed Hagi Mohamud was likely "to fall back into a pattern of violent crimes" if released because he faces deportation to Somalia.
"He is unlikely to align his behaviour with Canadian values," said Tessler.
Mohamud, 35, appeared via a video link from the North Fraser pretrial centre in Port Coquitlam.
Wearing a red prison jumpsuit and white wrist bracelet, he stared ahead without expression, crossing his arms and picking at his fingernails.
Mohamud arrived in Canada from Somalia in 1989 and was granted refugee status in 1990. He became a permanent resident in 1992, but was ordered deported in June 2006.
Tessler said the most "heinous" of Mohamud's crimes was the 2005 sexual assault in which he beat the female victim so badly she feared for her life.
"The circumstances make one wonder what would have happened had the victim not escaped," said Tessler.
Mohamud has also been convicted of pulling a knife on a Toronto cabbie and "severely" punching a woman in the face during a sexual assault.
Source: Times Colonist, December 21, 2007