Yassin Aref, an imam at an Albany mosque convicted of terrorism in a post-9/11 FBI sting, was deported Sunday night, his son and lawyer said.

Aref, who is Kurdish, will return to Iraq after 13 1/2 years in federal prison and eight months in immigration detention in Pennsylvania.

His son Salah Muhiddin said he received a call from his father around 3:45 p.m. Sunday telling him that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Aref to pack up his belongings and prepare to leave. A little later, the messaging system that he uses stopped working and ICE's detainee locator stopped listing him as a detainee.

Muhiddin was expecting a call anytime Sunday evening to confirm Aref was at the airport.

"If everything goes smoothly, he should be back in his home country as a free man tomorrow," Muhiddin said.

Aref's long-term lawyer Kathy Manley said at a hearing in federal court arguing for Aref's release last Friday, ICE said Aref would be deported soon.

"We were asking for him to be released because we didn't know when he was actually going to go. They said you don't need to do that, he'll be deported next week," Manley said.

Aref, who was imam at Masjid As-Salam on Central Ave., was convicted in October 2006 by a federal jury in Albany of conspiring to aid a terrorist group with Central Avenue pizza shop owner Mohammad Hossain, an immigrant from Bangladesh. Their 2004 arrest was based on recorded information gathered during an FBI counter-terrorism sting involving money laundering to purchase a shoulder-fired rocket launcher.

Prosecutors portrayed Aref as a religious fanatic. But Manley and others believe Aref's arrest was a case of entrapment.

In a twist in the story last year, the FBI confidential informant in Aref's case, Shahed Hussain, was the owner of the limousine company involved in the Schoharie crash that killed 20. His son, Nauman Hussain, now faces 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter and 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide related to the Oct. 6 crash. Shahed Hussain is believed to be in Pakistan.

On Sunday, Shamshad Ahmad, president of Masjid As-Salam, said about Aref: "We all desired deportation. We wanted him to go back and start a new life. I think his life was closed as soon as he was arrested and charged."

Manley and Ahmad both said they feared for Aref's safety in Iraq if the authorities learn about his case. If he doesn't face trouble, Ahmad said: "I think he will have a new life, a peaceful life and purposeful life."