Minh Quang Pham Gets His Day in Supreme Court
I’ve long been tracking the case of Minh Quang Pham, whom I call the “graphic artist of mass destruction” because he is accused of helping Samir Khan on Inspire.
He was detained in the UK back in July 2011 (see the timeline). That December, the UK government tried to strip him of citizenship, but failed because that would have left him stateless (he’s originally from Vietnam but the government doesn’t treat him as a citizen). He was quickly charged here when efforts to strip him of UK citizenship failed. But since then, his citizenship case has been wending its way through the British courts.
Throughout this period, it was not officially recognized that Pham was the guy fighting for his citizenship.
Today and yesterday, his case was finally heard before UK’s Supreme Court, and his name made public. Here’s the Open Society report on his case (which also has a timeline!).
I suppose, if Pham loses, he will be sent to NY for trial. If he wins, he will force the UK to charge him there, which for a variety of reasons may get interesting. Remember: Pham should know the informant behind the UndieBomb 2.0 attack. Which may be why everyone wants to try him over here.
quote”Remember: Pham should know the informant behind the UndieBomb 2.0 attack. Which may be why everyone wants to try him over here.”unquote
Of course. The DOJ will do everything in their power to keep testimony of FBI’s “informant” program, notwithstanding individual informants, from ever being disclosed in a court of law. Fast & Furious is living proof.
Try following the repugnant support of the DOJ for insidious ATF and DEA, notwithstanding NSA, CIA and other agency illegal usurpations of the Constitution…er..DOH!!!
sorry emptywheel.. of course you are. That’s why I’m here.
bartender..a pint of Chortle Premium please.
wait.. wait… ummmm, could some one please explain something to me. I seem to have missed something in the definition of WIN.
quote” If he wins, he will force the UK to charge him there, which for a variety of reasons may get interesting.”unquote
I don’t understand something here. If a defendant “wins”, doesn’t that mean he is NOT GUILTY? What exactly is going on here. Why is he in court if he HASN’T BEEN CHARGED, as you state..”If he wins, he will force the UK to charge him there…” Hasn’t he already been charged with something? I don’t know enough about this case to understand what is going on, but on it’s face, something seems really wrong with your statement. Can you explain this emptywheel?
Ok, I read the article at the link. So, now I understand why he is in court. But that brings up the next question. From the article…
quote:”Facts
Pham Minh Quang was born in Vietnam in 1983. Soon after, he moved with his parents to Hong Kong. Later they moved to the UK and were granted indefinite leave to remain. In 1995, he was naturalized as a British citizen.
On 20 December 2011, the UK government made an order depriving Pham of his British citizenship on national security grounds.”unquote
So, what happened between 1995 and December 2011 that caused the UK government to want to strip him of his citizenship on national security grounds? And why didn’t they charge him then, instead of stripping him of citizenship instead? Oh…it’s SEKRIT. So sekrit, they wanted him out of the country. right. gottcha.
sheeezushfuckingchrist. I’m so sick of sekrit laws, sekrit courts, sekrit trials, sekrit this and sekrit that, that I could fucking scream. You’d think we still live in the 11th century.
Heres the facts: he is not charged in the UK..everything is alleged. They say they have evidence but showed this in secret hearings in which Pham was not allowdd to view or hear about..so the whole evidence could be flawed or made up. SIAC however seen these evidence and despite that said it is illegal to have his citizenship revoked (even after hearing whats behind closed doors) and released him on unconditional bail. Im sorry if he is such a threat, why does he get unconditional bail. He was rearrested the same day with an extradition warrant to the US..? What has US got to do with anything…he never travelled there before.
the reason the UK want to revoke is based in the what thry believe he is not conducive to public good. If he was then why was he released free to roam around 5 months after coming back from holiday (july to dec) before being arrested without charge and stripped off his citizenship in (2011.)
Does anyone see whats happening here. Citizenship revoked to make him stateless and hence easier to deport him to US to be held in some supermax prison for something they have no evidence of and are not required to present what evidence they have of him doing such things..its all based on ‘we believe you are doing this’… what kind of justice system is this