Bharat Folder - IV

[Shah Khan]

US court frees Sikh militant
S. Rajagopalan, Washington, December 5

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 terrorists.

Harpal Singh Cheema, an alleged activist of the Khalistan movement 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 militants.

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 applied for asylum.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_485486,0000.htm