Court denies ‘boat people’s’ motion to drop indictment

The US District Court turned down yesterday a motion filed by Chinese crew men seeking dismissal of their indictment on grounds that potential witnesses who they said could help their defense have been repatriated to China.

In dismissing the motion, District Court Judge Alex Munson said the crew men had failed to convince the court that the repatriated aliens could actually provide testimonies favorable to their defense.

At the same time, Munson cited a US Supreme Court jurisprudence supporting the government’s decision to send back the undocumented aliens to China for “practical considerations.”

“The court found that prompt deportation of alien witnesses who are determined by the government to posses no material evidence relevant to a criminal trial is justified by several practical considerations,” Munson said.

The ruling cited, for example, the financial and physical burdens that the government would have to deal with while housing witnesses who are not charged with a crime.

“[T]he cost of running the Tinian tent camp was a major factor in the speed with which it was shut down,” said the US Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case.

It was reported earlier that the local government alone had incurred close to $2 million from hosting the aliens.

The motion was originally filed by Xue Jian Hui, through lawyer Eric Smith.

Four of Xue’s co-defendants, He Kui, Gao Liang, Shi Peng and He Xiu Jin, later joined in his motion.

The five were among the 10 people charged with alien smuggling for their alleged attempt to bring undocumented aliens into Guam.

Fifty-one aliens from China’s Fujian province were found in the fishing vessel when it was intercepted by federal authorities near Guam. Of the 51, six were detained as material witnesses for the government.

The 51 were sent to Tinian to join the 486 undocumented aliens already held in the island’s tent city.

The tent city was shut down last June 21. A majority of its occupants were repatriated to China and some, after having been screened for potential asylum, were sent to the mainland US.

Xue and his co-defendants made their initial appearance at the court the day after the repatriation. They were indicted on July 2.

The defendants claimed the repatriation of witnesses to China was “unfair” because it violated their Sixth Amendment rights to due process and compulsory process to obtain favorable witnesses.

But Munson said the Sixth Amendment “does not guarantee a criminal defendant the right to secure the attendance and testimony of all witnesses only to obtain compulsory process for witness in his favor.”

“At best,” Munson added, “defendant Xue would have had access to a potential witness who had already given two contradictory statements, one of which was unfavorable to him.” (MCM)