FREE HENDRIK Möbus

NEO-NAZI MAY BE SENT TO GERMANY

9/12/00

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.

Convicted killer Hendrik Albert Victor Mobus, 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, Mobus 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 that he could provide no information about the case.

Jory, who has been representing Mobus 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 Mobus over to the INS.

"I knew it was an alternative they could pursue," Jory said.

In his plea for asylum, Mobus challenges the German government's charge that he committed additional crimes while on parole for the 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. He contends his actions are "merely an exercise of free speech."

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