Federal authorities ordered an African immigrant who avoided child sex abuse charges because Maryland court officials couldn’t find an interpreter for him fast enough back to his native Liberia this morning.
The major question remaining about the fate of former Rockville resident Mahamu Kanneh is whether he will still have to face a 9-count indictment for alleged local sex crimes against children before he goes.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials don’t know whether Kanneh will be shipped to Africa before Maryland prosecutors have the chance to appeal the court ruling that let him walk free on the sex charges.
Federal immigration officials said Kanneh, 23, told a judge in Baltimore’s federal immigration court today that he was in the U.S. illegally.
Susan Eastwood, spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, said Kanneh is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She noted that since Kanneh is not fighting deportation, it’s entirely up to immigration officials when to send him home.
Eastwood said Kanneh waived his right to appeal and represented himself during the proceedings.
According to court transcripts, Kanneh’s public defender in the criminal case said her client was from Liberia but came to the U.S. in 2001 from a refugee camp in Ghana. Immigration Court Judge Elizabeth Kessler said in a prior hearing that immigration officials revoked Kanneh’s refugee status at the end of August.
Kanneh has been at the center of controversy since a judge dismissed the child sex charges against him in mid-July, ruling his right to a speedy trial had been violated. That trial was delayed while the court attempted to locate an interpreter who spoke Vai, a rare West African language.
Although several interpreters were found, none could commit to the trial.
Prosecutors are appealing the dismissal.
“We have filed our brief and arguments are scheduled for January,” Raquel Guillory, spokeswoman for Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said. “We are proceeding forward regardless of what is going on with his immigration proceedings.”
Immigration spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbes said her agency does not have to wait for Kanneh to stand trial in the criminal appeal in order to deport him.
“He could always be paroled back here for an appeal but we can proceed with the removal proceedings regardless of the criminal case,” Fobbes said.
