Canada deports convicted terrorist after 26 years of appeals

TORONTO – Canada's immigration minister says a convicted Palestinian terrorist who once hijacked an airliner has been deported from Canada 26 years after entering the country using an alias.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday that Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad made a false refugee claim in 1987. The government later learned he was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and had participated in a terrorist attack on an Israeli plane in Greece, which killed an Israeli citizen in 1968.

Kenney says Mohammad was convicted in Greece, but was freed before completing his sentence as part of the resolution of another hostage taking.

Kenney says Mohammad treated Canada's government "like suckers" and was deported to Lebanon on Saturday. He says he has status there because his wife is from Lebanon.