Canadian officials in Kenya confiscated the passport of Suaad Hagi Mohamud and concluded she was an impostor.

Ottawa will ask the government of Kenya to delay the trial of a woman accused of identity fraud so she can have a DNA test, her lawyer said Wednesday.

"The Canadian government has now agreed to … ask the Kenyan government to delay her trial in Kenya … and we're going to await the results of a DNA test," said Raoul Boulakia from Toronto.

His client, Suaad Hagi Mohamud, was to appear in a Kenyan court Friday on charges of identity fraud after Kenyan and Canadian officials said she didn't look like the photo on her Canadian passport. The 31-year-old could be sent to a Kenyan prison for up to three years or deported to her birth country, Somalia.

DNA will be collected from Mohamud, her ex-husband and their 12-year-old son in Toronto. It could take up to two weeks to get results, said Boulakia.

Reached by phone in Nairobi, Mohamud said she's very happy about the development.

"I'm really broke, I'm really sick. I've never been in this horrible, horrible situation," she said. "I just really want to go home and be with my son."

Confiscated passport

She has been prevented from leaving Kenya since mid-May, when she tried to leave Nairobi following a two-week visit with her mother.

Kenyan immigration officials said her facial features looked the same, but her lips looked different than those of the person in the passport photo, according to a document from Kenyan authorities.

Canadian officials in Kenya confiscated her passport and concluded she was an impostor.

The High Commission of Canada in Nairobi sent a letter to Kenyan officials on May 28 that stated, "Please be advised that we have carried out conclusive investigations, including an interview, and have confirmed that the person brought to the Canadian High Commission on suspicion of being an impostor is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned Canadian passport."

Mohamud said she has lost a lot of weight in the four years since the passport photo was taken. She showed the Kenyans other pieces of Canadian identification and offered to be fingerprinted, but she was charged with identity fraud. She spent eight days in jail before she was released on bail.

Mohamud said she provided fingerprints when she applied for Canadian citizenship, but Canadian officials say fingerprints are destroyed when such an application is closed. Dozens of her neighbours in Toronto have vouched for her.

Repatriation case ongoing

Boulakia said he and government lawyers negotiated a settlement to his Federal Court motion calling for DNA tests and a request to delay the trial shortly before he was to appear in court Wednesday.

A separate case to have her repatriated to Canada is continuing in Federal Court, he said.

Boulakia said he's hopeful the Kenyans will grant the Canadian request to delay Friday's trial.

"The reason they started prosecution is because the Canadian government specifically wrote to them and said she should be prosecuted," he said.

Canadian officials haven't spoken to the woman's son or former husband, he said, adding he has no idea how they carried out a "conclusive investigation."

"In my opinion, they were very quick to deny her identity and they were also very quick to ask the Kenyan government to go ahead with the prosecution of her," he said. "I believe that once they put it in writing, it's pretty hard to back down and admit you were wrong."

With files from The Canadian Press