High-profile Calgary Muslim cleric's lawyer says ...

By Bill Kaufmann
Calgary Sun
March 09, 2015

http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/03/09/high-profile-calgary-muslim-clerics-lawyer-says-his-client-disputes-sexual-assault-charges-out-of-the-us

Imam Abdi Hersy speaks to his followers as well as Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson at a mosque in Calgary, Alta., on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015. Hanson was there to speak to the Somali community, in the wake of the deaths of two Somali men in the city.

High-profile Calgary Muslim cleric's lawyer says his client disputes sexual assault charges out of the U.S.

Charged with sexual assault in the U.S., a high-profile Calgary Muslim cleric is ready to face the accusations but has been stymied, his lawyer said Monday.

Abdi Hersy, 46, is accused of fondling two female patients when he worked as a respiratory therapist in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in 2006.

He was stripped of his licence to practise in Minnesota and came to Calgary, where he’s operated the Abu Bakr Mussallah and been most visible as a spokesman for the Somali community.

But Hersy’s attempts to address the charges were foiled when he voluntarily returned to Minnesota in 2010 and was sent by U.S. authorities back to Canada, said his Calgary lawyer Raj Sharma.

“He surrendered himself to U.S. sheriffs department and was promptly deported,” said Sharma, who notes Hersy is adamant he’s innocent.

“He would not contest any extradition request — if there was any way for him to get his day in court, he’d be there with bells on ... these are not the actions of a fugitive or guilty mind.”

Sharma said he’s not entirely certain why Hersy’s been kicked out of the U.S. despite the accusations, other than the fact he’s a foreign national wrongly entering their country, or that authorities know the case against him is weak.

He was granted refugee status by Canada in 2008, on his claim he’s be killed if returned to his native Somalia.

But the Refugee Board of Canada stripped him of his status, arguing he misled them on the criminal charges.

But Sharma successfully appealed that decision in 2013, contending Hersy didn’t know of the charges made in absentia after he’d entered Canada.

The lawyer said the next move in Hersy’s case is up to Canadian authorities, who’ve already lost in court.

Some in Calgary’s Muslim community have distanced themselves from the imam.

But David Leipert, who’s known Hersy and his family for years, said he deserves the benefit of the doubt until convicted.

“It’s going quite viral in our community,” said Liepert, president of the Calgary Islamic Chamber Institute.

“He’s innocent until proven guilty...they’re good people from my perspective but that being said, I know anyone is capable of anything.”

Police in Woodbury, Minn., where the allegations arose, didn’t return calls Monday.