Thursday, January 12, 2006

Subversion of Normal Legal Processes—Tongsun Park

By now, most people are probably aware that Tongsun Park has been indicted in New York to face charges related to the scandal surrounding the UN’s Oil-for-Food Program.[1] What has been a mystery, and generally remains so, is how Mr. Park was brought from Mexico to Houston. He was originally indicted in April with accepting millions of dollars from the Iraqi government and with acting as an unregistered foreign agent, but he failed to respond to a U.S. warrant on those charges.[2] Mr. Park now faces new charges of , to act as an unregistered foreign agent, and .[3] The April charges—contained in a criminal complaint against Mr. Park, who was out of the country—were not grounds for extradition, so in December, “the government filed a conspiracy charge under seal in New York and issued a warrant for his arrest through , meaning foreign immigration and law enforcement officials were on the lookout for him.”[4] We discuss Interpol in some greater depth on our international crimes .

As Mr. Park was denied bond yesterday, and transferred from Houston to New York,[5] there are perhaps some answers. It seems that Mr. Park was stopped by Mexican immigration authorities last Friday as he was traveling from Canada to Panama.[6] What happened after that is not clear. According to the Houston Chronicle, “FBI agents stationed in Mexico City then escorted him onto a Continental Airlines flight to Houston, where he was taken into custody.”[7] According to the New York Times, however, “Christine Monaco, an F.B.I. spokeswoman in New York, [initially] said the agents had made the arrest in Houston, but denied they had any role in apprehending him in Mexico.”[8] However, a subsequent Times article states, “Mexican immigration officials apprehended him at Mexico City’s airport on the basis of an Interpol notice.”[9] The officials then put him on a commercial flight to Houston, accompanied by F.B.I. agents.[10] This is supported in the Chronicle, which noted that Mr. Park “was not aware of the new charge, so he was surprised when Mexican immigration officials detained him as he went through Mexico City on his way to Panama on Friday.”[11] He waited some time in a room at the Mexico City airport, and then was escorted onto a plane to Houston, on which he was accompanied by some men that he did not know; a “New York FBI official said Wednesday that agents from the FBI’s Mexico City office accompanied him.”[12]

Thus, it seems that the FBI had some role in the apprehension and removal of Mr. Park from Mexico, though Reuters reports that FBI agent Robert Midcap “said Mexican agents then flew with Park on a Continental Airlines flight to Houston, where U.S. authorities arrested him.”[13] Asked whether it was a Mexican or American decision to, as Reuters put it, “deport” Mr. Park, Mr. Midcap replied “[i]t was the Mexican government that expelled him. … That was the government’s decision, the Mexican government’s decision.”[14]

And that is the crux of the problem with this case. In some ways it doesn’t entirely matter whether the men accompanying Mr. Park were FBI agents or Mexican agents. What matters is that Mr. Park was, as Mr. Midcap said, “expelled.” This was the second time in as many days that Mexico sent someone to the United States from Mexico without following the normal legal processes of either extradition or deportation. Last , we mentioned Arthur March, who was going through extradition proceedings when he suddenly was arrested in front of his favorite donut shop in Mexico and transferred to FBI custody in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he was then sent to Houston. The details of that activity are unknown.

The fact that Mr. Park faced no deportation hearing, nor an extradition hearing, is extremely troubling. The fact that at least two people in one week have been expelled from Mexico without going through the normal legal processes is doubly troubling. Normally, an individual picked up on an Interpol notice would face a deportation or extradition hearing. It seems, however, that Mexico has found it expedient to simply place the person on a plane without bothering with its legal system. This does not bode well for the rights of individuals.


[1] See, e.g., Larry Neumeister, l, Associated Press (via Wash. Post), Jan. 6, 2006.
[2] , Associated Press (via Wash. Post), Jan. 11, 2006.
[3] Id.
[4] Tom Fowler, , Houston Chronicle, Jan. 11, 2006.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Simon Romero, et al., , NY Times, Jan. 10, 2006.
[9] Simon Romero, , NY Times, Jan. 11, 2006.
[10] Id.
[11] Fowler, supra note 4.
[12] Id.
[13] , Reuters, Jan. 11, 2006.
[14] Id.

posted by McNabb Associates, P.C. @ 3:55 PM