A Kazakh multimillionaire wanted for embezzlement in his homeland has been awarded $203,000 in costs after the Federal Court found Canadian officials guilty of abusing the legal process in fighting the man’s request to stop the deportation proceeding against him. The compensation to Rustem Tursunbayev is believed to be the largest monetary award for costs ordered in an single immigration case by the court, said Lorne Waldman, one of the man’s three lawyers.Tursunbayev was apprehended in the Greater Toronto Area in 2012 after Interpol sought his arrest based on accusations of fraud, counterfeiting and organized crime by Kazakh authorities. He was released from Toronto West Detention Centre and placed under strict house arrest for years. He is no longer under house arrest and does not have guards watching him. After years of legal wrangling in court fighting Tursunbayev’s bid to stop his deportation, Canadian officials — including justice, public safety, immigration and foreign affairs ministers — in 2017 finally agreed to put his removal on hold until a trial decides if he should be sent back to Kazakhstan by way of extradition instead of deportation.The deportation process is decided by a tribunal member who may or may not be a lawyer, while extradition requests are heard before Superior Court Justices, a process that provides important legal safeguards not available under deportation.Tursunbayev had argued throughout that his deportation must be put aside until the court rules whether extradition was the way to go. No trial date has been set yet.“Our argument is the proper process to return our client to Kazakhstan is extradition, which offers a much more significant level of protection for him. It is more difficult for the Canadian government to succeed in extradition because of Kazakhstan’s human rights record. And they chose not to send him back by extradition, but through immigration deportation,” said Waldma ...
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