A former child refugee who pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer will no longer have to fight the federal government in court over his right to stay in Canada.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale Tuesday that the government “will not pursue deportation” for Abdoul Abdi.

Abdi arrived in Canada in 2000 at the age of six as a refugee. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and assaulting a police officer, which prompted the federal government to take steps to deport him.

One deportation attempt was struck down by the Federal Court of Canada in 2016. A second attempt was halted Friday.

“The Government of Canada respects the decision filed on July 13 by the Federal Court concerning Abdoul Abdi,” Goodale said in the tweet.

Abdi spent the first two years of his life in Saudi Arabia, then four more in a refugee camp in Djibouti. He was considered to be a refugee from Somalia, although he had never lived there, because his mother was from that country.

Abdi lived with his aunts and sister in Nova Scotia for a few months before being taken into provincial care. He was moved between 31 different foster homes, and never obtained Canadian citizenship or completed his education past Grade 6.

Abdi’s lawyer, Benjamin Perryman, had argued that the deportation attempt violated both international law and Abdi’s rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald agreed with Perryman’s position, saying in her decision that the government “failed to properly consider” Abdi’s charter rights.