A North Vancouver man charged with murder and facing deportation appears in court this week, beginning a process of preliminary and pre-trial hearings scheduled to stretch into next summer.

Babak Najafi-Chaghabouri, 27, was charged along with Surrey’s Charles Leslie, 31, in July for the kidnapping and murder of Vancouver’s Ronak Wagad, then 31 years old.

Police found Wagad’s remains along Highway One in Chilliwack, near the Peters Road exit on July 8. Earlier this summer police said Wagad went missing on Feb. 23 and was likely killed the same day he was abducted.

On Feb. 16, just days before the alleged murder, Najafi-Chaghabouri was granted his appeal to a 2008 deportation order. The Iranian refugee had amassed convictions involving six violent crimes – including a 2005 knifing at a North Vancouver Persian restaurant – but the Immigration and Refugee Board’s (IRB) appeal division granted Najafi-Chaghabouri one last chance stay in Canada.

The IRB rescinded that last chance less than six months later, after Najafi-Chaghabouri violated the conditions of his appeal when he was convicted in June for carrying a knife and an imitation firearm.

Police claimed at the time of the arrests that the two accused and the victim were all involved in the mid-level drug trade.

Najafi-Chaghabouri will have to tie up his affairs in court before he faces the deportation order, explained Faith St. John at Canada Border Services Agency.

“A person has to deal with their criminal charges before their immigration charges,” St. John said. “And if a person has an active removal order against them – regardless of the outcome of the criminal charges – then that order is still in effect.”

If convicted, Najafi-Chaghabouri would be required to serve the length of his sentence before his removal from Canada, according to St. John.

According to court services, Najafi-Chaghabouri is set to appear in court Nov. 13, followed by dates in May and August 2010. He is currently in custody after a July 20 detention order.

kmcmanus@northshoreoutlook.com