-- CALGARY -- The release of a double-murderer onto city streets occurred despite the contention of the federal government that the convicted killer should remain in custody, immigration officials said yesterday.Hang on a sec... the IRB?
Elvir Pobric, who escaped a Bosnian prison more than 10 years ago and hid as a fugitive in Canada, was released last week, days after his detention review hearing was closed to the public.
The fact Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator Lee Ann King made the decision to release Pobric pending another hearing, without offering any reasons, has left politicians and police asking questions.
That sounds so familiar.
But c'mon now... what are we dealing with here...
Pobric was sentenced to 20 years in a Bosnian prison following the April 1992 murders of two men. After shooting them execution-style, Pobric burned and buried the bodies and a car in a garbage dump.He was arrested two days later.Oh Canada.
In November 1996, he escaped from jail. Pobric claimed refugee status when he arrived in Canada in 1999.
An outstanding fraud charge against Pobric has to be dealt with before officials with Canada Border Services Agency can find him inadmissible.
But Canadians will not learn how immigration officials will deal with him. Removals are reported to the public only after the removal has taken place.
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FROM THE COMMENTS: Oh... my... gawd...
"At his detention hearing, his Vancouver-based interpreter introduced herself over the speaker phone and said she was fluent in both Bosnian and Serbian.*
“'Can you tell me your name?,' asked Pobric, clad in a blue jumpsuit and handcuffed. “'I’m sorry, I don’t like to have a translator who have a Boza first name OK?
"That’s a Serbian name."
"The case was adjourned until Tuesday in order to find a Bosnian interpreter and to give the media time to make an application that the case be opened to the public."
God forbid they should be insensitive to this murderer's religious and ethnic sensibilities.