Biodun.BBC: political asylum

Showing posts with label political asylum. Show all posts

Monday, May 13, 2019

ANALYSIS: Julian Assange: from political asylum to prison

Date created : 13/05/2019 - 18:53 GMT/ZULU

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is fighting extradition to the United States, while Swedish authorities are reopening an investigation into a rape allegation AFP/File

ADVERTISING

Paris

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is fighting extradition to the United States to face charges over the 2010 publication of thousands of classified documents.

Swedish prosecutors decided Monday to reopen his investigation for alleged rape in 2010, which he denies and says is a pretext for his US transfer,

ADVERTISING

Here is a timeline of events since Assange first hit the headlines in 2010 :

- 2010: arrest warrant -

- July to October: The WikiLeaks whistleblowing website releases 470,000 classified military documents concerning US diplomacy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It later releases a further tranche of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.

- November: A Swedish prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for Assange over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women. Assange denies the claims, saying the women consented.

- December: He turns himself in to police in London and is arrested pending a ruling on the Swedish request for his extradition. A week later he is released on bail and calls the allegations a smear campaign.

- 2011: extradition ruling -

- February: A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden. He launches an appeal.

- 2012: refuge at embassy -

- June: He takes refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid extradition and applies for political asylum.

British police say he is subject to arrest for breaching the conditions of his 2010 bail, which included staying at his bail address overnight.

- August: Ecuador grants Assange asylum and he begins his almost seven-year stay and in the Ecuadorian embassy in London

- 2016: UN appeal -

- January: Ecuador rejects a request by Swedish prosecutors to question Assange over the sexual assault allegations.

- February: The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Assange has been "arbitrarily detained".

- 2017: sex case closed -

- January: WikiLeaks says Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights are guaranteed. This comes after one of the site's main sources of leaked documents, military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, is granted clemency.

- May: Swedish prosecutors drop the seven-year sex assault investigation, frustrated by the failure to have him extradited. The lawyer for one accuser calls the decision "a scandal".

- December: Ecuador grants Assange nationality but is blocked by Britain from according him diplomatic status.

- 2018: embassy tensions -

- January: Ecuador says it is seeking a mediator to resolve the "untenable" situation.

- February: Assange loses a bid to have his British arrest warrant cancelled on health grounds.

- March: Ecuador cuts off his communications -- including use of the internet or a mobile phone -- alleging he broke an agreement on interfering in other countries' affairs. It warns further breaches will lead to "termination of asylum".

- October: Assange sues the Ecuador government for violating his "fundamental rights" but the case is thrown out. His communications are partially restored.

- November: US prosecutors inadvertently disclose the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange.

- 2019: arrest -

- April 2: Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno says Assange has "repeatedly violated" the conditions of his asylum.

- April 10: Ecuador cancels his citizenship.

- April 11: British police arrest Assange at the embassy, saying Ecuador had informed them that his asylum had been withdrawn. He is held for breaching his 2010 bail conditions and also on a US extradition request.

- May 1: Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching bail.

- May 2: The legal process for his extradition to the US starts in a London court, Assange vowing to resist.

- May 13: Swedish prosecutors say they are reopening the 2010 rape investigation.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Trump says illegal immigrants should be deported immediately without judicial process

June 24, 2018 23H:07 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Melissa Gruz and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Washington

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said on Sunday that people who enter the United States illegally should be sent back immediately to where they came from without any judicial process, likening them to invaders who are trying to “break into” the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Nevada Republican Party Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., June 23, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

His proposal drew immediate criticism from legal analysts and immigrant rights advocates who said it would violate the U.S. Constitution’s due process provision, which applies to citizens and non-citizens alike.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, Trump said: “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”

“Cannot accept all of the people trying to break into our Country. Strong Borders, No Crime!”

It was unclear if Trump was advocating an expansion of the provision that allows expedited removals of illegal immigrants at or near the U.S. border, a policy his administration has embraced since he took office. Nor did Trump differentiate between illegal immigrants and people who entered the United States to seek asylum protection.

The White House did not return a call seeking clarification.

“The president of the United States has just forcefully proposed the end of political asylum and no due process for migrants,” Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote on Twitter.

Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told us at Reuters: “The administration cannot simply get rid of all process for immigrants. The due process clause absolutely applies. It’s not a choice.”

Authorities can bypass due process protections with the expedited removals policy that allows quick deportations if an immigrant is apprehended within 100 miles (160 km) of the border and has been in the country less than 14 days. Those seeking asylum must be granted a hearing.

Trump’s tweets on Sunday came after a week of global outcry over images and video of crying children and their distraught parents separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Critics in Trump’s Republican Party, as well as his wife and daughter, urged him to abandon the policy.

The president buckled to the pressure on Wednesday, issuing an executive order that ended the separations. But the government has yet to reunite more than 2,000 children with their parents.

TRUMP FUMES OVER IMMIGRATION

But Trump’s frustration over the issue only grew. He has issued a drumbeat of criticism of the immigration system and Democrats in Congress, while using increasingly harsh terms such as “invasion” and “infestation” to describe illegal immigration.

“Here, I think he is making it clear, he just doesn’t want anybody here. He wants people to just be sent back, no matter what,” said Jorge Baron, executive director for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, who compared Sunday’s tweets with comments Trump was reported to have made in January about immigrants from “shithole” countries.

While some who advocate for stricter immigration rules have argued that people are making fraudulent asylum claims or abusing the loopholes in U.S. immigration laws, Baron said Trump’s views went way beyond those arguments.

Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting adults for entering the country illegally entails a process that typically takes many months. That required children to be separated from parents because they are not legally allowed to be kept in detention for more than 20 days.

Keeping the children with their migrant parents as they await court proceedings faces obstacles, however, including the lack of sufficient housing, a paucity of immigration judges and a daunting backlog of cases.

Under expedited removal proceedings, which are used most commonly at ports of entry, an immigration official can evaluate an immigrant’s claim and reject it with no involvement by an immigration judge or review board.

The Trump administration called last year for the expansion of the expedited removals program to immigrants who have been in the country illegally for up to two years.

There is an exception from expedited removal for those with a credible fear of returning home.

Lindsay Harris, an assistant professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia, said those with no credible fear could still see a judge, while those with such a fear could begin a long legal process that eventually could result in asylum and applying for a work permit.

“It’s already an extremely truncated process,” the ACLU’s Gelernt said. “The president’s suggestion that there is a ton of process for these individuals is simply wrong. There are already people being removed with a truncated process.”

Friday, November 24, 2017

Caracas mayor asks for political asylum in Spain

24 November 2017 - 21H27 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24, Madrid

MADRID -

The mayor of Caracas, a staunch opponent of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, has applied for political asylum in Spain after fleeing to Madrid over the weekend, the Spanish government said Friday.

Antonio Ledezma, 62, "asked for political asylum in Spain after three years in prison and under house arrest in his country," government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told reporters.

"He is a reference in the Venezuelan people's struggle to regain freedom and democratic normality," he added.

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads

A lawyer by profession, Ledezma was arrested and jailed in February 2015 over allegations he was plotting to overthrow the president, and had been under house arrest since August.

He escaped to Colombia last week and then made his way to Spain.

Ledezma has said he fled Caracas because Venezuelan military and intelligence officials had informed him of a "government plan" against him, though he provided no details.

Oil-rich but cash-poor Venezuela is facing a deepening political and economic crisis as Maduro has moved to marginalise opposition forces, which control the country's legislature, and stifle independent media.