Utøya survivor to be deported for refugee lie
Richard Orange - [email protected]
Published: 12 Oct, 2013 CET.
Updated: Sat 12 Oct 2013 18:48 CET
A survivor of the 2011 Utøya massacre is to be expelled from Norway, after he admitted that he had lied his way into the country as a refugee eleven years ago.
Khaled Ahmed Taleb (37) had claimed to be fleeing the brutal civil war in Somalia when he arrived in Norway in 2002. He then went on to build a successful political career, representing the Labour party in both the Hedmark county council and the Hamar municipality, using the name Khalid Haji Ahmed. But the politician earlier this year admitted to police that he in fact came from the relatively peaceful state of Djibouti, and was four years older than he had claimed. Taleb lost his brother, who called himself Ismail Haji Ahmed, in the 2011 massacre carried out by Anders Breivik, the far-right terrorist. He himself was on the island of Utøya when the killer attacked. After his deception was exposed, he gave up all political office, and in May this year was sentenced to four months in jail. "He has done a good job motivating young people," Morten Aspeli, the mayor of Hamar, told NRK. "The decision to send Khaled out of the country has been made by the immigration authorities under Norwegian law, and I have to accept their reasoning." "I hope I get another chance," Taleb told VG earlier this year. "I have not committed any serious crime in the years I have lived in Norway and I have contributed a lot to Norwegian society since I came here." The immigration authorities have yet to rule on whether they will also expel Taleb's parents and two brothers, who he helped move to Norway in the years following his arrival.
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Khaled Ahmed Taleb (37) had claimed to be fleeing the brutal civil war in Somalia when he arrived in Norway in 2002.
He then went on to build a successful political career, representing the Labour party in both the Hedmark county council and the Hamar municipality, using the name Khalid Haji Ahmed.
But the politician earlier this year admitted to police that he in fact came from the relatively peaceful state of Djibouti, and was four years older than he had claimed.
Taleb lost his brother, who called himself Ismail Haji Ahmed, in the 2011 massacre carried out by Anders Breivik, the far-right terrorist. He himself was on the island of Utøya when the killer attacked.
After his deception was exposed, he gave up all political office, and in May this year was sentenced to four months in jail.
"He has done a good job motivating young people," Morten Aspeli, the mayor of Hamar, told NRK. "The decision to send Khaled out of the country has been made by the immigration authorities under Norwegian law, and I have to accept their reasoning."
"I hope I get another chance," Taleb told VG earlier this year. "I have not committed any serious crime in the years I have lived in Norway and I have contributed a lot to Norwegian society since I came here."
The immigration authorities have yet to rule on whether they will also expel Taleb's parents and two brothers, who he helped move to Norway in the years following his arrival.
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