DEPORTATIONGATE: Fiji's Walter Mitty law enforcer Aiyaz Khaiyum and the UNHCR in Geneva should have told Papua New Guinea to make a formal request for Sawari's extradition, for he committed no crime in Fiji

4/2/2017

8 Comments

And Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry, who was calling for the arrest and deportation of Loghman Sawari to Papua New Guinea, should have instead called on Sawari to be subjected to the due process of Fijian and international refugee law. The NFP and SODELPA should have done the same. There was no obligation on Sawari's part to apply for political asylum immediately or ten days later, as argued by Khaiyum. Sawari had entered Fiji on a genuine PNG passport (even though he had obtained it fraudulently, and understandably) and was granted a four month visa. In any case, as Sawari's lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh pointed out, they had to wait for documents from Australia and Papua New Guinea before heading for Suva to keep appointment with Fiji's Director of Immigration. But Sawari was ambushed, arrested, and deported to PNG. He was not even allowed to take his bundle of possessions back to PNG where he fled from - and is now held in a cell awaiting his next fate

Fijileaks to Mahendra Chaudhry: Sawari did not enter Fiji illegally; he entered on a genuine PNG passport which he had allegedly obtained fraudulently, to escape Australia's brutal gulag - the Manus Island Detention Centre which is manned by PNG in exchange for
millions of dollars from Australia

And, like Chaudhry and his Indo-Fijian victims, Sawari's only crime is he is an Ahwazi Arab, an ethnic minority in Iran that faces significant, often violent, political persecution at the hands of the Iranian state, as well as discrimination over employment, language, housing and civil rights. [Khaiyum and FijiFirst remind us everyday that Fiji is now practising equal citizenry and non-discrimination]. Ahwazi Arabs in Iran are routinely hanged. Sawari fled Iran at his mother’s urging after his two brothers were imprisoned and tortured by the country’s theocratic regime and a cousin was publicly hanged for his opposition to the government. Sawari carries a picture with him of his defiant relative kissing the hangman’s rope as it is fastened around his neck. Unfortunately, Sawari was not secretly given $2million to relocate with his family to AUSTRALIA. He ended up being locked up at the notorious Manus Island Detention Centre despite being a child at the time of his detention. There can never be two rules: one sauce for the goose and another sauce for the gander

Manus Island Detention Centre

Sawari's co-religionists are regularly persecuted and hanged for demanding for their rights as minority group in Iran

WELCOME TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA FROM FIJI, LOGHAMAN SAWARI

8 Comments

Voter

5/2/2017 12:22:27 am

Mahendra Chaudhary is just as Despicable as Khaiyum!

But we are also interested to know the views on Refugee Sawari or Refugees in general held by other political parties - the NFP and Sodelpa and the newly formed HOPE.

Rajend Naidu

5/2/2017 06:33:00 am

Romania : People Power v Self-Serving Politicians.
Five days of the largest people's power protest since the anti- communism protest has forced the ruling mob in Romania to make a
U-Turn on its decree design to decriminalise certain forms of corruption involving politicians viz, that corruption of under $48,000 was not to be regarded as corruption! This in a country that regularly ranks among the worst in Europe ( ABC 24 News 6/2 ).
The Romanian people were relentless in expressing their abhorrence at this attempt by self- serving politicians to undermine the country's anti- corruption regime.
The mob in power realised that the protesting people were not going to just go away. That if they did not remove this disgusting legislation there was every likelihood that people power would remove them.
There must be a lesson in there for people elsewhere faced with corrupt political leaders.

Rajend Naidu

5/2/2017 08:04:38 am

US Judiciary Shows The Way On Upholding The Rule Of Law.
It has rejected President Trumps appeal to overturned a judges ruling to temporarily suspend Trumps executive order banning immigrants from 7 Muslim majority countries from entering the US.
It said the appeal was without any " factual foundation ". There was no affidavit from the relevant state agencies to show evidence of the purported national security threat etc.( Aljazeera 6/2 ). In other words the judiciary has made it clear that laws are not enacted on the whim of the man heading the country and his mortley collection of sycophantic cronies, including the legal variety.
The ruling should help President Trump understand the precept of separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive which is at the heart of good democratic governance.
Trump can't run the country on his whim.
No democratic leader anywhere can do that.

Refugee

5/2/2017 10:46:58 am

That picture of Mass hanging is pretty gruesome... distressing.

The world needed to know too that the government of Iran is capable of and does commit such atrocities against its own People. This is wrong and cruel and barbaric and has to STOP! Refugee Sawari has brought this to our Notice.

The government of Fiji (its Minister of Everything) MUST write to the President of Iran telling him to STOP these atrocities.

And that Chorwa Chaudhary (who should rightfully be in Naboro) and his Labour Party (of four) showed us all their bare ignorance and pathetic prejudice -calling Refugee Sawari an economic refugee.

Rajend Naidu

5/2/2017 02:58:04 pm

Editor,
In his letter ' Iranian refugee ' in The Fiji Times 6/2 the pseudo-intellectual Donald Singh praises the decision to deport the refugee Sawari and castigates people who stood up for the refugee, including the Fiji Human Rights director Mr Ashwin Raj.
( A pseudo-intellectual is a person who affects proficiency in scholarly and artistic pursuits whilst lacking any in- depth knowledge or critical understanding of such topics ).
With his characteristic lack of any in- depth knowledge and critical understanding of the trials and tribulations of a refugee and the rights of refugees under international refugee law and a state party's obligations under it, the pseudo-intellectual Donald Singh makes his mediocre pronouncements in his schoolboy style letter in which he ends by asking "... who cares about Sawari's fate in PNG..."
Certainly not Donald Singh.
And, that's not surprising. We recall when the Chinese artist and dissident AI Weiwei was arrested and held in detention ( for over 80 days with any charge ) and the US, France, Britain and Germany called on China to release him, Donald Singh wrote a letter in defence of the Chinese government's action saying AI Weiwei was a furgitive !
We have to live with the fact that we have shit people like that in humanity's mix.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Welcome Home

5/2/2017 07:39:16 pm

You may rest assured, Refugee,that those who turn their back - literally and not figuratively - to the Truth of the Matter would never consider a feigned attempt to speak frankly to Iran. Perjured evidence witnessed in the Sigatoka Court in November 2011 in front of the Senior Nadi Magistrate and related to Organised Crime was of little or no consequence despite an Order of the Court for immediate Police investigation. Turning-the-back-to-the-Truth when dutifully offered is an experience not to be taken lightly. It lives on in perpetuity. The victims of unsolved and almost forgotten murder cases going back to 2005 in Nadi require redress. Their families require answers as to why the insult of such violence has received such a paltry response? Not even the courtesy of a face-to-face exchange.

Najib

6/2/2017 06:59:58 am

Read the Refugee Convention. The Iranian is no refugee. He should have sought asylum in the first country he arrived at after fleeing his homeland
You can't island hop to choose the country u want to settle in

Welcome Home

6/2/2017 05:57:00 pm

It is comforting to know that lawyer Mr Ravindra-Singh will make the effort to take Sawari's personal effects to him in PNG and that he will liaise with the lawyer appointed to represent him in Court. Surely this should have been done by Fiji authorities as a bare minimum in liaison with UNHCR? There is always a risk associated with such cases that the person may be other than he appears to be. Common sense should tell us that. However, cherry-picking islands in the face of unconscionable hardship is understandable in view of maybe years of harsh, inhumane treatment in a state globally known to sponsor terror means that very careful and at all times circumspect handling should be in place. Was this so? Is it the norm? If not, WHY not?

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