|
INS gets hands on neo-Nazi fugitive
September 12, 2000
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN - A neo-Nazi fugitive wanted for violating the conditions of his parole in a 1994 murder may be headed home to Germany, his West Virginia attorney said Monday.
Convicted killer Hendrik Albert Victor Möbus, 24, was turned over to agents of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service sometime Monday, then put on a flight to New York City, Elkins attorney Stephen Jory said.
Last week, in an attempt to stave off his anticipated deportation, Möbus asked the United States for asylum, arguing the German government wants to persecute him for his political views.
It was not immediately clear whether the INS would grant or deny an asylum hearing. An agency spokesman in Washington, D.C., said Monday evening he could provide no information about the case.
Jory, who has been representing Möbus since his arrest in Lewisburg last month, expects immediate deportation.
"My speculation is ... they will deny his application for political asylum based on his fugitive status,'' he said. "I suspect he'll be on a plane to Germany [Monday night].''
Jory tried to stop the extradition last week, but a federal magistrate declined to issue an order stopping the custody exchange. The absence of such an order cleared the way for the U.S. Attorney's Office to drop the fugitive charge and hand Möbus over to the INS.
In his plea for asylum, Möbus challenges the German government's charge he committed additional crimes while on parole for the murder of a "non-Aryan'' teen-ager.
Those crimes include a public declaration he would never surrender to authorities, as well as a public statement that the murder wasn't a crime because his victim "did not fit the picture of the German race.''
Mobus also is charged with expressing right-wing Nazi views, performing a Nazi salute and organizing a right-wing organization in Germany and Europe. He contends his actions are "merely an exercise of free speech,'' even though they are illegal in Germany.
Mobus, who was paroled in 1998, fled to the United States when he learned he would be arrested again and entered the country at Seattle, Wash. He was admitted on a visa-waiver program that admitted him for 90 days but has been here illegally since March.
Mobus assumed an alias and received help from people as he traveled through parts of Ohio and Virginia on his way to West Virginia.
He arrived June 9 at the 200-acre Pocahontas County compound of white supremacist William Pierce, founder of the National Alliance. Federal marshals watched activity at Pierce's compound for several weeks, then arrested Mobus Aug. 26 when he ventured out to a restaurant in Lewisburg.
Pierce is the author of the "Turner Diaries,'' a novel about the overthrow of the U.S. government. The book received national attention after it was revealed that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had read and promoted the book.
All contents copyright © 2000 Associated Press
|