Hussein stepson to be deported soon

MIAMI, July 5 (UPI) -- Proceedings for the deportation of the stepson of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein began Friday while the New Zealand citizen remains in detention at an Immigration and Naturalization Service processing center in Miami.

Mohammed Nour Al-Bin Saffi was arrested Wednesday for a visa violation.

"The individual is in removal proceedings, and they are moving forward, but it's impossible to tell when he will be deported," said spokesman Russ Bergeron of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "It could be anywhere from any minute to several days."

Friends and family in New Zealand said he admitted not having a visa, and would not oppose deportation.

Saffi was arrested at an airport area hotel. INS officials said he entered the United States with tourist status, but tried to attend the AeroService Flight School without a student visa as required.

Federal officials said there is no intelligence linking Saffi to terrorism and his name is not on any list of suspected terrorists.

Authorities said they learned he was heading to Miami from a tip from an FBI agent at a U.S. consulate in Canberra, Australia. They said red flags were raised because of his family relationship to Hussein, his intention of training at an American flight school, his arrival the day before the Fourth of July and because his only other visit to the United States came four days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

Authorities said AeroService has one of the best reputations as a flight school for Boeing 727 jetliners. Said Jarrah, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, trained at the school, but officials said there was no link between the terrorist and Saffi.

Saffi worked as a mechanical engineer for Air New Zealand as a mechanical engineer for years. He also is working for a startup South Pacific cargo service. He was training as a flight engineer and was planning to pay AeroService in Miami $7,000 for a four-day course.

Saffi's mother is Samira Shabandar, a former flight attendant for Iraqi Airways. Reports, apparently spread by Hussein's enemies living in exile, said she was the Iraqi strongman's mistress in the 1980s and was forced to divorce her husband and marry Hussein in 1986. By then Saffi, 36, had already been born.

Saffi's natural father, Nor Aldin Saffi, was an official with Iraqi Airways.