US COURT FREES ACTIVIST HARPAL SINGH

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US COURT FREES ACTIVIST HARPAL SINGH

An excerpt from:

Hindustan Times

Saturday, 6th December 2003

California -- A US court has ruled that "one country's terrorist can often be another country's freedom fighter", and set free a Sikh activist who has been in custody for the past six years on charges of aiding [supposed] terrorists.

Harpal Singh Cheema, an [activist for victory of the panth]in the San Francisco Bay Area, has had brushes with the police in India. He has been held in various California jails since 1997 on charges of raising money for Sikh groups under suspicion of the government.

But the US Court of Appeals, ordering his release this week, ruled that a non-citizen's financial support of foreign terrorists does not automatically make that person a danger to US national security.

"It is by no means self-evident that a person engaged in extra-territorial or resistance activities — even militant activities — is necessarily a threat to the security of the US. One country's terrorist can often be another country's freedom fighter," Judge John Noonan noted in the 2-1 ruling.

But dissenting judge Johnnie Rawlinson referred to the violent acts attributed to the militant groups Cheema had aided and said they justified his detention, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. "Our country should not become a haven for those who desire to foment international strife from our shores," he noted.

The US government is expected to go in appeal against the verdict.

Cheema had entered the US in 1993 after alleged torture by Indian police and promptly app

lied for asylum.

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Can't we stop US Govt going against the verdict??????

Start a petition

[ms514]

Sat Sri Akal:

Well, the courts have made one VERY important notation in stating that the "secret" evidence must be presented to convict Singh Sahib. Upper courts, unless they have been completely brainwashed by this "National Security" B.S., will want to see this evidence as well.