A man who led an eccentric life of spying and espionage, skulking in the shadows as an agent and then a double agent for both Saddam Hussein and Israel’s Mossad, has been given a new chance at remaining in Canada, where he is trying to avoid coming face-to-face with those he betrayed.

Hussein Ali Sumaida, 53, has won yet another court appeal, one of many legal wins and losses that have so far ended in a stalemate spanning 28 years.

Canada’s justice and immigration systems have not been able to reconcile the Sumaida conundrum: his years of cloak-and-dagger put him in danger of torture if he is deported to the Middle East, but also make him ineligible to remain in Canada because of concern his activities amounted to crimes against humanity.

A world of privilege

Sumaida grew up in a world of privilege; his father was a high-ranking diplomat in Iraq during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. After Sumaida left to attend university in England in the 1980s, his youthful rebellion meant joining a dissident group actively opposing Hussein’s regime.

After a falling out, he reported the names of more than 30 opposition activists to the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence agency.

Disenchanted again with Hussein, he started working for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, primarily spying on members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, according to evidence in the Federal Court of Canada.

He allegedly helped facilitate an arms deal with Abu Abbas, who gained notoriety as the so-called mastermind behind the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, during which a wheelchair-bound American Jewish man was pushed into the sea.

Sumaida later confessed his dalliance with Israel to the Iraqi authorities. Because of his father’s position with Hussein, he was pardoned on condition he work as a double agent against Israel, the court heard.

Sumaida then returned to Iraq and worked for the Mukhabarat directly, the court heard.

He maintained an interest in living in Canada since at least 1990, when he arrived on an Iraqi diplomatic passport and made a claim for asylum. He returned to England before the claim could be decided, however. There he made a similar claim, but then returned to Canada when his British claim was rejected.

In 1991, he penned an autobiography called Circle of Fear, documenting his spycraft and flipflops. Court and government officials have drawn material from his book over the years to probe his activities and his credibility.

What followed was a series of immigration hearings and court appeals that — like Sumaida — went back and forth on whether he could be deported.

Compromise

In 2005, Canada tried a compromise. Sumaida would undoubtedly be at risk in Iraq, officials decided, but perhaps not in Tunisia, where he had immigration status because it was his father’s birthplace.

When he arrived there, he later said, government officials were at the airport waiting for him and he was imprisoned and tortured. Once released, he bribed his way onto a flight to Europe and returned to Canada with false identity documents.

And just like that, his immigration and court claims and appeals began again.

His pre-removal risk assessment — to determine if it is safe for Canada to deport him — wasn’t decided until last year. No one could explain to the court why there was such a delay, court records say.

His removal was deemed acceptable by the government but Sumaida appealed that decision to the Federal Court as well. And again he won a reprieve.

Federal Court Judge Yvan Roy, in a decision released Thursday by the court, said the government’s process in reaching its conclusion was flawed.

A full transcript of the hearing of evidence that the assessment was based on was not given to the minister’s representative who was making the decision and Sumaida was not given an adequate chance to address challenges to his credibility, Roy ruled.

“Whatever one may think of the applicant’s character, such is not the issue before the court. It is rather for the court to determine if the decision made in his case is legal,” Roy wrote in his decision.

“Surely when someone faces deportation, after having spent more than 10 years in Canada and fearing mistreatment upon his return to his country of citizenship, perhaps attaining the level of torture, he is entitled, as a matter of fairness, to be confronted with the information that may be used to impugn his credibility.”

Roy sent Sumaida’s case back to the government for a new consideration of what danger he faces if he is deported.

Sumaida could not be reached following Roy’s decision. Earlier this year, he told the National Post he has long since moved past working in the shadows.

He lives a far quieter life in Hamilton, Ont., runs a home repair business and is married with grown children, he said. He was volunteering to help Syrian refugees integrate into Canada.

“It’s a whole different life,” he said.

His volunteer work may be a good fit. After a life working as a chameleon, as he called himself in his book, he seems suited to helping people re-adjust and acclimatize.

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