A Montreal imam ordered deported last year was arrested Monday at a Canadian Border Service Agency office in Montreal.

Immigration officials arrested Said Jaziri because his request for permanent residency was turned down and he is considered to be a flight risk, authorities said.

He is due to appear in front of an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the border services agency declined to comment on Jaziri's case, saying information will be disclosed at the hearing.

"Generally, the motives that are invoked to ask for the detention of an individual is based on the risk of that individual not showing up either for an audience review or for the removal process," Kareen Dionne said.

Jaziri's deportation order came last year but his Québécois wife, Nancy-Ann Adams, who is seven months pregnant, said they had hoped Border Services would grant a stay.

"Imagine, you see your husband they are telling that he will be returned to Tunisia, tortured, and then eventually, la mort [death]. He had already been tortured in Tunisia. And he is the father of this baby I am waiting for. It was terrible. It was terrible," she told CBC News.

Jaziri sought sanctuary in his Montreal mosque last December after the refugee board revoked his refugee status, obtained in 1998. He claims political opponents in Tunisia will torture or kill him if he is sent back.

The refugee board claims the Tunisian-born cleric presented false information when he entered Canada as a refugee. He was also accused of hiding a prior criminal record in France.

Jaziri denies both accusations and insists Canadian authorities conspired with Interpol authorities to doctor his application.

He has unsuccessfully attempted to have the decision overturned before the Federal Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal.

The immigration board said it is trying to extend his detention until he is deported.

The cleric is the spiritual leader at the Al-Qods Mosque on Belanger Street in Montreal.

He was outspoken about the controversy over cartoons of Muhammad published in a Danish magazine in 2005 and republished elsewhere. Jaziri organized a large rally in 2006 to denounce publication of the cartoons.

With files from the Canadian Press