Khaberni - The American authorities deported Louis Akrawi (78 years old), convicted of murder and known to the police as the ‘Godfather of the Chaldean Mafia’ in Detroit and its former leader, on Tuesday evening from Detroit airport to Jordan, after a legal battle that lasted years to prevent his expulsion from the United States, according to his lawyer Shanta Driver, as reported by Yemenis of America.
Driver stated that her client suffers from Parkinson's disease and severe health complications, and that the defense team was preparing to file an emergency request to the immigration court to stop the deportation, but the authorities executed the decision before considering the case, while the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment, as published by Detroit News.
According to the family, Akrawi had been detained at an immigration center since last September, after a failed asylum attempt in Canada. Victor, his son, explained that his father secretly fled to Canada in a last-ditch effort to avoid deportation, but the plan collapsed after the coordinated parties did not show up, which led Akrawi to enter a hospital due to his deteriorating health condition, before being arrested by Canadian border authorities upon his exit and returned to the United States the next day, after his asylum request was denied.
Akrawi’s criminal record dates back to the 1980s and 1990s, before he was convicted in 1996 of second-degree murder, and subsequently released on parole. He had fled Iraq in 1968 and never obtained American citizenship. Over the years, his family waged a legal battle to prevent his deportation, citing safety and medical concerns, but this week the authorities concluded a campaign that lasted nearly half a century to remove him from the country.
