Canadian Immigration Court issues deportation order for former Iranian Deputy Interior Minister
The Canadian Immigration Court has issued a deportation order for Iran's former Deputy Minister of Interior.
Yesterday, Wednesday, March 20, corresponding to 1 Farvardin 1403, the Canadian Immigration Court issued a deportation order for Salman Samani, the former Deputy Minister of Interior of Iran, who was subject to sanctions approved in 2022.
Salman Samani, 43, traveled to Canada on a tourist visa issued in Ankara and was questioned immediately upon arrival about his past in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Salman Samani said at his hearing last month (February): “I know nothing about my boss, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, ordering the police to kill protesters in 2019.” He also denied any involvement in human rights violations and expressed ignorance about the Iranian government’s involvement in arbitrary arrests, torture, and killings.
His statement of ignorance comes as Canadian immigration officials argued that he, as a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, played a role in defending the Iranian government in the November 2019 massacre, in which, according to Reuters, 1,500 people were killed by security forces.
According to Kirk Dickinson, a member of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Service, on Wednesday, Salman Samani's strong influence in the Iranian government was reported and stated that this issue is unacceptable to the Canadian government. Accordingly, the deportation cases of nine other suspected senior officials with Iranian identity are to be sent to the Immigration and Refugee Court.
On February 21 of this year, Canadian Immigration Minister Mark Miller announced in a post on social media that the government had rejected the permanent residency application of "Eshaq Qalibaf", the son of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards.
In February 2024, Immigration and Refugee Agency Canada also issued a deportation order against Majid Iranmanesh, the technology advisor to the Iranian Vice President.
It is worth noting that a third senior Iranian official has also been arrested in Canada and his case is being reviewed for deportation. However, Immigration and Refugee Canada has refused to disclose the identity of this senior official due to his asylum application and has decided to hold his hearings behind closed doors. Global News requested that the court hearings be open to the public regarding the arrest of the said official and the hearing of his case, but the court denied this request.
