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NEO-NAZI SEEKS ASYLUM IN U.S.
9/08/00
The Associated Press
CLARKSBURG - A neo-Nazi fugitive wanted in Germany for violating parole
has asked the United States for asylum, arguing the government in his
homeland will persecute him for his political views.
Convicted killer Hendrik Albert Victor Mobus, 24, appeared in federal
court Thursday for hearings on two motions, one to keep him in the
custody of U.S. marshals and another to stop his proposed transfer to
the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
U.S. Magistrate John Kaull ordered Mobus to remain at the Central
Regional Jail in Flatwoods but did not immediately rule on the request
to stop the INS from assuming custody.
Both Kaull and defense attorney Stephen Jory said they were unclear
about their authority to make certain decisions in the case, which
involves several federal agencies, two governments and an extradition
treaty.
Kaull gave Jory and Assistant U.S. Attorney Zelda Wesley three weeks to
file additional briefs, which he will then rule on. He did not
immediately schedule a new court date.
Wesley argued the magistrate lacks the authority to stop an INS
deportation order and disputed Jory's assertion that Mobus could lose
his right to an asylum hearing if that transfer were to happen.
"Mr. Mobus will be afforded whatever rights are afforded to a person
after they raise the issue of political asylum. Frankly, that's why he's
still in the custody of the marshals now," Wesley said.
In his two-page plea for asylum, Mobus challenges the German
government's charge that he committed additional crimes while on parole
for the 1994 murder of a "non-Aryan" teenager.
Those crimes include a public declaration that 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.
Mobus, who was 16 at the time of the killing, was sentenced as a
juvenile for the murder and paroled by German authorities in 1998.
He fled to the United States when Germany officials tried to revoke his
parole, entering at Seattle, Wash., on a visa-waiver program that
allowed him in the country for 90 days.
Those three months expired in March, so Mobus may be in the country
illegally.
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 neo-Nazi hate group, the
National Alliance.
Federal marshals watched activity at the compound for several weeks,
then arrested Mobus outside a Lewisburg restaurant Aug. 26.
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.
Pierce and his supporters prepared the asylum papers and filed them with
the INS. This week, Pierce is devoting his radio address to Mobus and
the right to free expression, which he maintains is being gradually
eroded.
"Now they say hate speech is a hate crime. In Germany, you can't express
yourself unless it's politically correct," Pierce said Thursday. "In
Germany, there is no free speech. . . . I want America to understand
that is the situation over there."
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