- News Release
Contact Mark Weber
weber@ihr.org.
949 - 631 1490
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- An important hearing in the legal fight by Ernst Zundel
to revoke his February 2003 deportation from the United States is set for
Thursday morning.
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- The 'application for habeas corpus' hearing is scheduled
for Thursday, November 18, at 10 a.m., in Eastern Tennessee District Court,
800 Market Street, Room 4, Knoxville. It is open to the public.
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- Zundel, 65, is a German-born graphic artist, publisher,
historical revisionist, and civil rights activist. In August 2000 he moved
from Canada, where he had lived for 42 years, to Sevierville County, Tennessee,
to make a new home with his wife, Dr. Ingrid Rimland, a US citizen. Seeking
to live permanently in the US, the INS had accepted his 'application for
adjustment of status.'
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- On Feb. 5, 2003, INS officials, accompanied by local
law enforcement officers, seized Zundel without warning or arrest warrant
at the couple,s eastern Tennessee home. Two weeks later he was deported
to Canada, allegedly for having "overstayed his visa" and having
"missed a hearing."
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- In August, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati
overturned an earlier court decision and ruled that Zundel is entitled
to a 'habeas corpus' hearing on his deportation.
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- For more than a year a half, Zundel has been held in
solitary confinement at the Metropolitan West Detention Center in Rexdale,
near Toronto. His ordeal has attracted international media attention. Demonstrations
demanding freedom for this 'political prisoner' and 'prisoner of conscience'
have been held across Canada and in Los Angeles and Seattle.
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- At the hearing on Thursday, Zundel's attorney is expected
to submit in evidence a recently videotaped deposition in which Zundel
reviews the facts of his case and refutes US government accusations.
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- His former immigration attorney, Rehim Babaoglu of Memphis,
is also set to testify. He is expected to explain that at the time of his
arrest Zundel was carefully complying with all relevant regulations and
procedures, and that US government claims that Zundel 'missed a hearing'
and 'overstayed his visa' are demonstrably false.
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- The United States Attorney is now claiming that the Knoxville
Court has no jurisdiction to hear the case because Zundel entered under
a specialized 'visa waiver' program giving authority to the INS to seize
and deport him without hearing. In fact, the government's visa waiver authority
had lapsed at the time he entered the USA.
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- For more about the Zundel case, see the Zundelsite
http://www.zundelsite.org/index.html and the IHR website http://www.ihr.org/index.html
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- See also: Who is Ernst Zundel and Why Is He in Jail?
http://www.ihr.org/news/030923Zundel.shtml
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