After living in church basement for 6 years former KGB worker voluntarily leaves Canada | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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After living in church basement for 6 years former KGB worker voluntarily leaves Canada

Former KGB employee Mikhail Lennikov poses for a photograph on Tuesday June 2, 2009 at First Lutheran Church where he sought refuge in Vancouver, B.C. Lennikov has voluntarily left Canada.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER - A former KGB agent who spent six years living inside a Vancouver church to avoid deportation has voluntarily left Canada.

Mikhail Lennikov's lawyer Hadayt Nazami says his client has concluded negotiations with Canadian border services and is no longer in the country.

Lennikov was ordered deported in 2009 but sought religious sanctuary in a B.C. Lutheran church, where he lived until recently.

Canadian immigration officials declared Lennikov a threat to national security because of his history working as a KGB translator in the 1980s.

Lennikov openly confessed his role with the infamous Soviet spy agency to the Canadian government in 1999 and said he did the work under pressure.

Nazami says Lennikov's wife and son have become Canadian citizens.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015
The Canadian Press

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