MIAMI – Saddam Hussein's stepson has been deported to New Zealand after being detained on immigration violations when he arrived at a Florida flight school attended by one of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Mohammed Nour al-Din Saffi, 36, will remain in federal custody until he arrives in New Zealand, where he is a naturalized citizen, said Rodney Germain, an Immigration and Naturalization Services spokesman in Miami.
No criminal charges are pending, Germain said Tuesday.
The deportation on Monday was widely expected after Saffi was detained last week because he did not apply for a student visa that would have allowed him to take courses. Instead he traveled as a tourist under a visa waiver as a citizen of New Zealand.
Saffi was working for an airline in New Zealand and planned to attend classes at Aeroservice Aviation Center, a Miami-based flight school, according to the FBI.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said that Ziad Jarrah had trained at the Aerospace Aviation Center. Jarrah was one of the hijackers aboard a United Airlines flight that crashed in rural Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.
Authorities in New Zealand said there was no evidence that Saffi was connected to any terrorist group.
Saffi is the eldest son of Samira al-Shahbandar, Saddam's second wife. His father is Nour al-Din Saffi, an aviation engineer and former head of the Iraqi Airways.
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