New Zealand company backs Hussein stepson

Mohammad Nour al-Din Saffi is seen during his transfer to Krome Detention Center.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (CNN) -- The owner of a New Zealand cargo company who sent Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's stepson to flight school in Miami denied knowing Saturday that a student visa was required, as did an official at the school.

Mohammad Nour al-Din Saffi, 36, is expected to be deported from the United States because of the error, which the company owner and school official said was a simple mistake. A source with the Immigration and Naturalization Service said he could be deported within a few days.

Jimmy Brooks, the owner of Tiger Lines Cargo in Auckland, New Zealand, said he wanted to hire Saffi to work on a Boeing 727 the company had just acquired. He chose a flight school in Miami because it was well-known and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration -- but said the school never told him a student visa was required for the four-day course.

Officials at the school, Aeroservice Aviation Center -- which had been used by one of the September 11 hijackers -- said they didn't know the INS required such a visa.

"There is no requirement on any information we have from the Department of Justice or from the FBI or from INS that a [student] visa is required," said Berton Beach, vice president of operations at the flight school.

"If it is, we don't know about it. We have no idea that any INS problem occurred. I know airplanes but I don't know INS," Beach said.

Saffi, a New Zealand national who holds a flight engineering license in New Zealand, is being held at the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade County. He was arrested Wednesday night in Miami after entering the United States on a tourist visa.

Jim Goldman, lead investigator at the INS district office in Miami, said Saffi told immigration officials he was going to take a four-day recertification course for flight engineers in Miami. In fact, officials said, he intended to attend the course at Aeroservice Aviation Center to recertify his license to fly Boeing 727s.

Goldman said lying to immigration officials is a deportable offense.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO The stepson of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was arrested on a visa violation in Miami (July 4) Play video

But Brooks insisted he sent Saffi to the school to take the engineering course. Brooks himself was supposed to be in a group of four headed to the school -- the others were Saffi and two U.S.-based FAA-licensed captains Brooks wanted to hire to fly his plane -- but Brooks missed his flight and stayed behind.

Asked why of all flight schools he chose the one in Miami, which had the ominous September 11 connection, Brooks said it is one of the best and largest facilities known, and that their four-day recertification course is one of the quickest. The nearest Boeing 727 simulator, he said, is Melbourne, Australia, and is not FAA certified.

Brooks said the confusion is a result of a simple misunderstanding and that his motives were business-oriented and legitimate. Brooks said he is totally supportive of Saffi because he believes he is qualified and professional.

"He is a very nice, hard-working family man who wants to live peacefully and do his job," Brooks said.

After the September 11 attacks, the United States tightened visa requirements for people attending U.S. flight schools. Several of the hijackers attended flight schools in Florida, and one -- Ziad Jarrah, who was aboard the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania -- attended Aeroservice Aviation, an FBI spokeswoman said.

Saffi raised two other red flags upon his entry into the country, according to an INS source, the first being his relationship to the Iraqi leader. The second was the date of Saffi's last trip to the United States -- September 7 -- four days before the terrorist attacks -- when he passed through en route to London.

Saffi's mother, Samira Shabandar, who is married to Hussein, refused to comment when contacted by CNN. Saffi's family in Auckland has also refused comment.

A former U.S. government expert on the Persian Gulf told CNN that Saffi is the son of Samira Shabandar and her then-husband, Iraqi airline executive Nour al-Din al-Saffi. Saddam Hussein had an affair with Shabandar in the 1980s, and Hussein persuaded her husband to divorce her so they could marry, the expert said. Saffi was then promoted to the head of the airline.

Hussein did not divorce his first wife, but he married Shabandar, who is considered his second wife. Hussein has five children with his first wife, two boys and three girls. He has one child with Shabandar.

-- CNN Correspondents Hugh Williams and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.