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Voices For Freedom Petitions for Rehearing of the Ninth Circuit
May 25th 2004, California:
Kulvir Singh Barapind is a Sikh asylum seeker currently detained in Fresno, California. He has been in detention in the United States since he was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport in April 1994. Legal counsel for Mr. Barapind provided by lead advocate of Voices For Freedom (VFF), Jagdip Singh Sekhon said, Mr. Barapind is petitioning for rehearing of the Ninth Circuit's three member panel decision. The government has until the first week of June 2004 to respond to the petition for rehearing. When Mr. Barapind arrived in the United States in 1994 he applied for asylum with the Attorney General. In 1997 the federal courts reviewed the Attorney General's denial of asylum to Mr. Barapind. The federal courts held that Mr. Barapind's fear of persecution in India established his eligibility for asylum and directed the Attorney General to readjudicate his application for relief under the proper legal standards. The Attorney General did not readjudicate Mr. Barapind's application but instead suspended his asylum proceedings. Subsequently in September of 1997 the Government of India filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California requesting the extradition of Mr. Barapind for eleven different offenses that occurred in 1991 and 1992. Mr. Barapind has challenged the legality of the government proceeding with the Indian government's request. He has argued in the federal courts that because he is entitled to seek asylum in the United States on the grounds that he is a refugee he cannot be returned to India, and that he is not extraditable based on the evidence submitted by the Indian government in support of its request. The evidence submitted by the Indian government was comprised exclusively of purported witness statements that were severely tainted by the extradition court's findings that the Indian government coerced such statements. The extradition court found that in one instance the Indian government murdered a witness who was in their custody after having tortured him. The three member panel decision is based on a standard of proof so low that it is incognizable and dispenses of any rule of law in favor of unencumbered arbitrariness, stated Jagdip. Given the Indian government's record on human rights abuses, Voices For Freedom is concerned that Kulvir Singh Barapind will be tortured and possibly murdered if he is extradited to India. Voices For Freedom is hoping that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will recognize this and find that he is not extraditable and allow Mr. Barapind to proceed with his application for political asylum in the United States.
For more information or details please contact Voices For Freedom at
advocacy@voicesforfreedom.org
Contact:Mandeep Singh
Ph: 646-219-2863
 
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