Convicted terrorist Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad deported from Canada after 26-year battle

Canada has an abysmal reputation as a refuge for bad people, whether it's war criminals, international crooks or terrorists.

One of the most egregious chapters has finally been closed with the deportation of Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, who spent more than a quarter century fighting to stay in Canada despite his involvement in a deadly 1968 terrorist attack.

Mohammad, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was convicted in a Greek court for his part in the attack that left an Israeli mechanic dead and destroyed an El Al jetliner at Athens airport.

He immigrated to Canada in 1987 but hid his past, which would have made him ineligible for residency. When it was revealed, he was already here. Though ordered deported that same year, he dragged out the process for decades, becoming a symbol of the flaws in Canada's immigration system, the National Post said.

He was finally put on a plane Saturday and deported to Lebanon, CBC News reported.

"After a 26-year stay in Canada, we finally succeeded in deporting this convicted terrorist killer," Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said at a news conference Monday. "Mr. Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad represents just how broken Canada's immigration and refugee determination systems had become under previous governments."

“It really was a thorn in our side, much like some of the known Nazi war criminals who were able to dodge the system,” Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, told the Post.

“There was just something glaringly unjust about his ability to take advantage of everything that Canada had to offer even though he had blood on his hands.”

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Several aging Nazi war-crimes suspects have used the courts to delay justice. Michael Seifert, convicted of massacring prisoners at a transit camp in Italy, was finally extradited to Italy in 2006, after years in court. He died in prison four years later.

Another accused Nazi war criminal, Helmut Oberlander, has been stripped of his Canadian citizenship twice but remains in Canada after almost two decades of fighting deportation.

Last year, Canada managed to deport Leon Mugesera to his native Rwanda to face charges related to that country's 1992 genocide. He'd been battling removal for 16 years.

Mohammad had been sentenced to 17 years in prison for the Boxing Day 1968 attack with another man on the El Al plane using assault rifles and hand grenades. But the Greek government freed him in 1970 as part of deal with Palestinian terrorists who'd hijacked a Greek airliner and threatened to blow it up unless he was released, the Post said.

After living in Cyprus and Spain, Mohammad, his Lebanese wife and three children applied to immigrate to Canada but he didn't mention his conviction on his application. The family settled in Burlington, Ont.

"[Mohammad] lied about his identity, he lied about not having a criminal past, he lied about not having ties to terrorist organizations," Kenney said, according to CBC News.

After he was ordered deported, Mohammad applied for refugee status, a claim that was ultimately rejected but triggered a fresh round of appeals. The Post said his most recent attempt to stay was based on grounds of ill health and that the Lebanese health-care system was inadequate.

[ Related: Canada tried to deport terror suspect Raed Jaser ]

"This case is almost a comedy of errors, with delays, with a system that was so bogged down in redundant process and endless appeals that it seemed to some that we would never be able to enforce the integrity of Canada's immigration system and deport this terrorist killer, " Kenney said.

Mohammad argued he had lived a clean life in Canada but in a 1982 interview with the CBC's Terri Milewski, he appeared to relish his part in the El Al attack.

"He'd sprayed the plane with gunfire and killed an Israeli mechanic," Milewski, who chatted with Mohammad as he waited to interview Popular Front leader George Habash, recalled Monday. "The way he saw it, he was somebody!"