Sayfildin Tahir Sharif, Iraqi-born Canadian citizen, faces extradition to the US
A Canadian Customs officer watches over the U.S.-Canada border. Canadian border agents at a Minnesota-Manitoba border crossing arrested an American grandmother and jailed her for 12 days on suspicion of trying to smuggle heroin into Canada. A jar of what border agents thought was heroin turned out to be motor oil.
Sayfildin Tahir Sharif, a Canadian who was born in Iraq, should be extradited to the US on terrorism and murder charges, a judge in Edmonton, Alberta, has ruled.
Sharif is accused of involvement in two separate attacks in 2009 that killed five American soldiers and seven other people in Iraq, according to the BBC.
If convicted of terrorism charges in the United States, Sharif could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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Justice Adam Germain ruled Friday that there is enough evidence to extradite Sharif to the United States, the CBC reported.
The judge said that evidence gathered through wiretaps and internet conversations was "highly suggestive of a conspiracy to commit murder," the CBC said.
Sharif, also known as Faruq Muhammad Isa, is an ethnic Kurd who was born in Iraq but came to Canada as a refugee in 1993, living in Toronto and Edmonton.
He became a Canadian citizen in 1997, the Canadian Press reported.
Sharif's lawyer said they would appeal against the extradition ruling.
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