Dany Villanueva will be allowed to stay in Canada

Dany Villanueva, the brother of a man killed by police in 2008, will be allowed to stay in Canada because of the risks he would face in his native Honduras.

Villanueva was facing deportation after pleading guilty to a 2006 armedrobbery.

• Dany Villanueva acquitted of armed robbery
• Fredy Villanueva's mother says her son was 'not a thug'

This week, he received a letter from a representative of federal immigration minister John McCallum, confirming that his request for a pre-removal risk assessment was accepted, his lawyer Stphane Handfield said.

Federal authorities decided that the risk he faces in Honduras is greater than the danger he poses to Canadian society, Handfield noted.

Villanueva is the brother of Fredy Villanueva, who was gunned down by a police officer at a Montreal North park in August 2008.

He was charged again with armedrobbery in 2008, just weeksprior toFredy'sdeath,but was acquitted in 2011.

Villanueva'slawyer sees this decision as evidence of a "new attitude" in the immigration department since the election of the new Liberal government. "It's like night and day," Handfield said.