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WASHINGTON, July 19, 2004 (AP) – A former Somali military judge accused of war crimes has been deported from the United States, immigration officials said Monday.
In a separate action, a former member of the Nicaraguan Sandinista military was arrested in Miami, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency also said in the announcement.
Both cases are part of the agency's initiative to deny refuge to those accused of international human rights violations.
Abdi Ali Nur Mohamed, known as Judge Nur, was deported Thursday to an African country other than Somalia, though the agency did not specify which one. He had been in U.S. custody since a federal judge in San Diego ordered him deported in June 2003, which officials said marked a first for an alleged Somali war criminal.
ICE said he participated in the execution of innocent civilians near Hargeisa, Somalia, during the rule of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
On Friday, ICE agents arrested Francisco Anotonio Campos-Gamboa, 47, at his Miami home. A judge ruled July 2 that he was a human rights violator, and he is being held in preparation for deportation, the agency said.
Campos-Gamboa was part of the Nicaraguan Sandinista military during the 1980s and "was a member of the Guerrilla Assault Squadron that assisted the main leaders of the Sandinista Revolution to carry out acts of persecution and human rights violations," ICE said in the statement.
His lawyer, Mario M. Lovo, told The Miami Herald that the allegations are false.
"He may have been in the Sandinista military and may have been a bodyguard, but to extrapolate that to torture is a quantum leap," Lovo was quoted as saying.
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