Toronto Judge orders Schreiber deported to Germany

Karlheinz Schreiber, a key figure in a political party financing scandal involving former prime minister Brian Mulroney and former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, arrived in Germany on Monday after losing a decade-long extradition battle in Canada.

The 75-year-old former arms-industry lobbyist landed in Munich around 9:30 a.m. local time. He was taken to a jail in nearby Augsburg, where prosecutors accuse him of bribery and tax evasion.

Schreiber, who blew the whistle on Mulroney, was allowed a stay of his deportation order in order to give testimony in a public inquiry into his business dealings with Mulroney.

But on Sunday a Toronto judge upheld a deportation order for Schreiber, meaning the controversial German-Canadian businessman had to go back to Germany where he faces multiple criminal charges.

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RCMP delivered a letter to Schreiber's Ottawa home at 5:10 p.m. Friday from Justice Minister Rob Nicholson asking him to turn himself in to a Toronto detention centre within 48 hours under his bail conditions.

Schreiber told reporters the Harper government wanted to be rid of him because he was an embarrassment to Mulroney and to the Conservative party.

“Mr. Nicholson is a close friend of Mr. Mulroney. Mr. Mulroney doesn’t like me too much,” he said. “The elephant is still in the room...The whole approach here is to get my mouth shut and to get me out of the country.”

He told Canadian media the manner and timing of Nicholson's letter, delivered while he said he is still challenging the extradition order in the courts, is “a total abuse of power and an injustice.”

Schreiber was a central figure in a political financing scandal in 1999 that led to the resignation of former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as the party’s honorary chairman.

Schreiber has told the inquiry he paid Mulroney $300,000 in cash to lobby domestically on behalf of the German-sponsored project to build armoured vehicles in Nova Schotia.

Mulroney admitted taking money from Schreiber but told the federal inquiry there was nothing “sinister” about accepting cash-stuffed envelopes from Schreiber at three hotels in the 16 months after he stepped down as prime minister in the summer of 1993.