A former stripper with advanced AIDS who faces deportation to her native Thailand is asking the Ontario Court of Appeal to reduce her prison sentence by even just one day, saying it could mean the difference between life and death.
"I'm really scared," said Suwalee Iamkhong, 39, who was convicted and sentenced to two years in a penitentiary in 2007 for transmitting HIV to her husband, Percy Whiteman, whom she met while dancing at Toronto's Zanzibar Tavern.
She was ordered deported on Dec. 16 but remains entangled in a complex web of legal proceedings, where timing is everything.
As long as Iamkhong's sentence remains two years or longer, she is considered, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, to have been convicted of "serious criminality" with no right to appeal the deportation order.
Had her sentence been just 24 hours shorter – two years less a day in a provincial institution – she would have a right of appeal.
In an interview with the Star, Iamkhong, who has also been stripped of permanent residency status, said she's afraid she will not obtain specialized AIDS medication in Thailand and will be ostracized in her village.
Her lawyers are expecting a decision today from the Immigration and Refugee Board on whether she can be free until a date is set for her deportation
Iamkhong's appeal from her conviction and sentence is scheduled for March 24, but she could be removed from Canada as soon as citizenship documents are obtained from the Thai government, said her lawyer, Elizabeth Long.
Meanwhile, Whiteman is suing Iamkhong and the federal government for allowing her into Canada. The lawsuit may be in jeopardy if she's kicked out.
Before the appeals court, Philip Campbell, Iamkhong's criminal lawyer, is seeking either a stay of the charges, a new trial or a sentence reduction of at least one day. The trial judge, Todd Ducharme, engaged in "circular reasoning" and misunderstood the evidence, he argues in court documents.
Campbell's client, who arrived in Canada on a work visa in 1995, was skeptical of a test previously conducted in a "ramshackle" Hong Kong lab showing she was HIV positive and concluded she did not have HIV after undergoing blood tests in Canada for her visa renewal.
At the trial, Ducharme didn't believe Iamkhong thought she was HIV negative, saying anyone faced with conflicting results would have had more tests.
But Ducharme's conclusions about how a normal person would behave was based on his belief Iamkhong was in doubt about the results, when in fact she was confident she didn't have the virus, Campbell said.
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