U.S. DRUG CONVICT PLEADS TO STAY IN B.C.

Man Who Aided Meth Production Argues His Actions Are Legal in Canada

Surrey resident Ibrahim Mohammad Al Husein admits he provided a large
quantity of ephedrine to a U.S. gang wanting to make crystal meth.

He pleaded guilty in a U.S. court and served a year in jail.

But now his lawyer is arguing in the Federal Court of Canada that the
Jordanian national should not be excluded from remaining here because
his U.S. crime is not illegal in Canada.

Blake Hobson argued before Judge Dolores Hansen in Vancouver last
week that because supplying precursor chemicals like ephedrine for
illegal drug production is not made a crime in the Canadian Criminal
Code, it should not be held against Al Husein, who lives in Surrey
with his wife and step-daughter.

"If the claimant's conduct is not criminal in Canada, then it cannot
be used for the basis of his exclusion," Hobson said during a
two-hour hearing. "Any way you look at it, possession of ephedrine in
Canada is not a crime."

Al Husein has been ruled inadmissible by the Immigration and Refugee
Board because of his U.S. conviction. One board member said that
because al Husein admitted to a role in the scheme to make
methamphetamine, he was part of a "conspiracy" to produce an illicit
drug, which is in fact against the law in Canada.

Al Husein was considered a bit player in a bigger drug gang when he
was caught in the U.S. in March 2000 with 17,000 pseudoephedrine
pills and $81,380 cash.

His lawyer now says that even though Al Husein "had the intent when
he had the ephedrine to manufacture methamphetamine, that falls short
of the test of a conspiracy."

"A conspiracy requires proof of an agreement," Hobson said.

Law enforcement agencies in Canada have complained that crime groups
are legally importing large quantities of precursor chemicals to make
both meth and ecstasy in clandestine labs. Much of it is shipped to
the U.S. where the same precursors are illegal.

Federal immigration lawyer Nanafsheh Sokhansanj said Husein was
rightfully excluded by the IRB because of his admitted criminality
and involvement in what would amount to a conspiracy to make illegal drugs.

"Agreeing with someone to produce methamphetamine is a crime," she argued.

Sokhansanj told Hansen there does not have to be an identical offence
in Canada to correspond with someone's conviction in another country
in order to deem the claimant inadmissible in Canada.

The other issue is whether Al Husein officially completed his U.S.
sentence. While he finished the jail time, he was deported to Jordan
before completing five years of probation.

Hobson said Al Husein can't be blamed for the fact he was forcibly
deported from the U.S. before the probation period ended.

But Sokhansanj said it is clear from the record that the Surrey man
voluntarily agreed to be deported in order to avoid spending time in
immigration detention. A warrant remains out for him in the U.S., she
said, because of the probation breach.

Hansen reserved her ruling in the case.

Al Husein landed in Canada in 2002 after his U.S. jail stint and a
brief period back in Jordan. He claimed refugee status on the grounds
of religious persecution, stating his family and others had
threatened him after he found Christianity.

But he remained on the radar of police on both sides of the border
because of his association with others believed to be procuring
chemicals for drug gangs to make meth.

The Americans tried to extradite him and two associates again in 2003
after more evidence surfaced of a conspiracy to smuggle hundreds of
kilos of pseudoephedrine pills into the U.S.

Al Husein swore an affidavit in his refugee case on the collapse of
the second set of U.S. charges, saying: "The extradition proceedings
against all of us were completely dropped in November of 2003 when it
was conceded that the U.S. could not even establish a prima facie
case against anyone."