Lawyer for disguised Man on Flight wants Media Ban

Associated Press

The lawyer for a Chinese asylum seeker who boarded a flight from Hong Kong to Canada disguised as an elderly white man requested Monday that the media be banned from covering his client's immigration hearings to protect his identity.

Lawyer Dan McLeod told Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board that the man from mainland China is very concerned that information disclosed at the hearing might become available to Chinese authorities.

"This is an extremely unusual case in that there has been an extremely serious and potentially dangerous leak about a refugee claimant by an unknown Canada Border Services official," McLeod told the adjudicator, referring to an intelligence alert about the man that was leaked to the media last week.

The man's name has not been released and McLeod said it should remain that way because disclosure could result in persecution or retribution from China.

Authorities have not suggested any terrorist link to the man who boarded the Air Canada flight in Hong Kong on Oct. 29 wearing a remarkably detailed silicone mask disguising him as an elderly white man. The internal intelligence alert from the Canadian Border Services Agency shows before-and-after photos of the man with and without the mask, saying he removed the disguise in a washroom mid-flight.

A Hong Kong official told the AP that the imposter is a mainland Chinese citizen who was transiting through Hong Kong. The official declined to be named because she is not authorized to release the information.

The official said the Chinese man likely escaped detection because he used his own travel documents and a genuine boarding pass when clearing immigration checkpoints in Hong Kong, and then swapped travel papers with a collaborator in the transit lounge just before boarding the flight to Vancouver, British Columbia.

A Canadian official, who provided the Border Services alert to The Associated Press, said a U.S. passport was involved.

Jim Murray, one of the top lawyers for Canada Border Services Agency, said the refugee claimant identified himself as a member of an organization in China and there is concern for the safety of some of the group's members. He did not specify the group involved.

Murray said the man has given "indications of what has happened to people in China who have been members of that organization."

McLeod argued the hearings should be held in the absence of the media, specifically singling out three Chinese media outlets -- Sing Tao, Ming Pao and World Journal. He expressed concern that even if the court barred publication of his client's name, Chinese media might reveal the information to authorities.

"Many Chinese media have relinquished their professional ethics," McLeod said.

Reporters from the newspapers named denied their news outlets were controlled by Beijing.

McLeod cited Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas as saying that Sing Tao had been sued by members of Falun Gong, a meditation sect that has been banned in China where its members have been labeled as terrorists by the government and risk arrest.

"Sing Tao had published an article saying that Falun Gong had advocated the destruction of the world and identified three Falun Gong practitioners," said McLeod. When reporters asked him outside the hearing room if his client was a member of Falun Gong, he said he couldn't discuss details of the case.