Ottawa, 24 July 1997 (RFE/RL) - A man who Canadian police say is a senior figure in the Russian mafia is being deported.
Vyacheslav Marakulovich Sliva gave up his efforts to stay in Canada Wednesday after immigration officials turned down his application for release from custody. At the hearing, Sliva's lawyers admitted that he lied about his criminal past -- as well as his marital status -- on the application he filed for landed immigrant status.
Constable Glenn Hanna, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's organized crime enforcement unit for Eastern Europe, told immigration officials at the hearing that Sliva was lying low in Canada until he obtained permanent status.
Part of the evidence put forward by the police included wiretaps of telephone conversations in which Sliva issued threats to kill and beat people in Moscow who had not paid extortion money and issued orders for money to be moved from Russia to Canada.