Canada deports another ex-KGB agent

29 April 2007: Givi Abramishvili, 70, lieutenant-colonel in the Soviet Union's infamous KGB, living in Canada for the last eight years possible deportation from Canada.

Adjudicator, while serving the deportation order, said that he is being deported pursuant to finding of ample evidence that Givi was a member of KGB from 1969 to 1989and before the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, the KGB was the main intelligence agency and secret police for the USSR. Givi arrived in Canada on a visitor visa in 1999 and applied for refugee claim after four years. His hopes now rest on Public Safety Minister to grant him a waiver, despite having served in the KGB.

His counsel, Mr. Lennikov is now trying to appeal his case directly to the Immigration Minister. He has been speculating that recent Russian spy scandals might have played some role in his fate. The controversy over his case is troubling for himself and his family, both in Russia and in Canada.

He has refused to describe the work he performed for the KGB, saying that can only cause more concerns. "The mere fact that I have disclosed I was employed is already a punishable offence by Russian law. I'm not supposed to do that."

Disclosing the information he already has to the Canadian authorities has already provided grounds for prosecution in Russia, should he be deported back to Russia.

However, failing to disclose his former work would likely have jeopardized his claim to stay in Canada if immigration authorities had discovered his past at some point in the future.

A spokesperson for the Public Safety Minister said that she could not comment on specific immigration cases, but stated that Canada wants to assure that the country is not a safe haven for those that may be a danger to national security.

"On this, our tolerance level is zero. We're committed to enforce removal orders against those persons who are inadmissible to Canada," she said.

This is not the first ex-KGB to face deportation. In February, Canada announced that a 46-year-old ex-KGB agent would be expelled from Canada.