UPP reminds PM Browne that every citizen is entitled to constitutional protection and due process

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The United Progressive Party notes, with serious concern, recent statements attributed to Prime Minister Gaston Browne in relation to Mr. Mehul Choksi, a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda.

Mr. Choksi, who is facing extradition to India by way of the normal legal and constitutional process, alleges that he was abducted and taken against his will to Dominica.

In a shocking statement on the matter, Prime Minister Browne indicated that the Government of Dominica should deport Mr. Choksi directly to India and not return him to Antigua and Barbuda because he would be protected by the Constitution here.

This statement is both irresponsible and frightening.  It is not for the Prime Minister to decide who is entitled to the protection of the Constitution.  We are a nation of laws: Every citizen of Antigua and Barbuda is entitled to due process and the rule of law must be respected by all.

It was the Gaston Browne Administration that granted citizenship to Mr. Choksi.  Under Section 9 of the India Citizenship Act, once a citizen of India accepts citizenship of another country, his Indian citizenship is automatically cancelled.

Accordingly, as inconvenient and embarrassing as it may be for the Government, Mr. Choksi is a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda – not India.

The alleged abduction and beating of Mr. Choksi already paint an unflattering picture of the country, and Prime Minister Browne’s deliberate attempt to subvert and corrupt the rule of law makes us look even worse.

The United Progressive Party condemns the Prime Minister’s statement and calls on him to respect the constitutional rights of all citizens and desist from wild and ill-considered utterances.

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25 COMMENTS

  1. Well said by the UPP.They are so correct on this one.I am just worry for my Country,Antigua and Barbuda in this matter.The truth always rises to the top,always.

  2. Absolutely and this protection is not just when you are at home in your country of citizenship. The protection applies as well when you are in another country. It is a norm under International Law that a State must protect its citizens wherever they are. In the case of Choksi, even though he is in Dominica he is a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda and the government is obligated to protect his interest. Gaston Browne’s attempt to throw Choksi to the wolves (as it were) was outrageous and seriously contrary to international law.

  3. I hope people would listen to the message and not the messenger on this one. Take UPP and Choksi out of it and put a Vincentian who became an Antigua citizen. Would the PM say to deport him to St Vincent because he’ll be protected by the constitution? The PM has been saying some really outrageous things recently and apart from the UPP and their supporters no independent bodies or people pull him up on them. Antigua you are slipping back into year 2000.

  4. Charles Tabor: You spoke of International Law. What Law? Gaston Browne is the Law. He is the Law unto himself.He is the World Boss,Teflon Dan,The Moses.Not like the one in the Bible. Who led his people into safety out of Egypt.This Gaston Browne,referred to as Moses by the Comrades. Would lead his people into Bankruptcy and over a cliff of no return.It is up to us to stop that. By registering, and Vote his arse out of Office. Along with those old hoodlums and renegades in the ABLP.

  5. CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE !!!!!!!

    READY STEADY GO!

    Time for ABLP paid bloggers to go on the attack.

    Shout out for:

    Just Saying
    Eric the Red
    Rupert Mann, Woman and Child
    Pete
    Frederic
    ETC ETC

    TIME to pick up the ABLP dirty notes and Attack

    CHARGE YOU FOOLS, CHARGE!
    TRY TO GET MORE OVERTIME PAY BY BLOGGING FOUR TO FIVE TIMES
    CHARGE, CHARGE I SAY, CHARGE

    • Maybe it’s time to discard this worthless parliamentary form of government and institute a Republic with inalienable rights for all citizens. (rights given to the people by GOD, not permissions allowed by a man) Look at every protection in the Antiguan constitution and you’ll see a paragraph which limits our freedoms, such as the one being used now for this alleged health emergency…. but if you look at our constitution, all of our freedoms have such limiting clauses contained in them. This is a very bad situation.

      Maybe we need to hold a constitutional meeting to debate this.

  6. I’m not a supporter of the UPP but the message and principle is absolutely correct. The behavior of this Government will send shock waves not only to citizens of A&B but particularly to CIP recipients. This is because your constitutional rights as a citizen of this state are not apparently guaranteed and can be withdrawn at any time. Scary thought…

  7. Wait UPP realize they can form the government and have this problem to deal with?

    It might sound like the correct political thing to say in opposition but if you accidentally for the next government, it would be amazing to here the new language.

    This is one of those things that transcends party lines.

  8. Avatar photo Every potential Citizen that pays through that scheme and it is a scheme should be extremely worried about their entitled protection under Àntigua law as displayed by the Dictator and Traitor

    Take the damn man money and give him citizenship then acting like he not a citizen of Àntigua . A bit too late he’s entitled and protected with every available law just like a born Àntiguan .

  9. This is an example of the UPP showing how politically tone deaf they are. Here we have a man who knew he was being investigated yet did not disclose this in his application. Recognizing that his time was running out (just like he did in India), he decided to try to make an escape. Is the UPP willing to compensate tax payers for moneys A&B would have to spend to confine this wanted person, if on the unlikely chance he is returned here? They do recognize he is a flight risk? The man has now been charged for illegally entering Dominica hence is now no longer our problem.

    I hear this argument that once you are a citizen of a country and wanted in another, that if found illegally in another country, you must first be returned to your country of citizenship. Fact is we see it all the time where alleged drug trafficker’s are not always returned to their country of citizenship but first turned over to the country they are wanted in. A few examples are Cesar Emilio Peralta (Columbia sent him to Puerto Rico), tse chi lop (awaiting extradition to Australia from Amsterdam). Nirav Deepak Modi (Choksi’s nephew) though a citizen of Belgium, the UK court has given permission for him to be deported to India to face the courts there (he has appealed).

    • TENMAN I WILL NOT COMMENT ON YOUR POST OTHER THAN TO SAY IT IS THE MOST BS I HAVE SEEN FROM YOU SO FAR. AMAZING

      • Poor you, you can’t argue based on facts so you decide to act ignorant. Regarding the false info you and the UPP spreading, claiming Choksi is not a Indian citizen, let me suggest you read the case State of U.P. v. Rehmatullah. It makes clear that Indian citizens do not automatically lose their citizenship on obtaining a second citizenship. There is a process which has to be followed by the agency empowered to do so. Such is yet to happen with Choksi. hence he remains a citizen of India. India itself has made clear that Choksi is still a citizen (see India says jeweler Choksi still a citizen, pushing for Antigua extradition by Neil Marks, Feb 2019). You and the UPP need to find proper lawyers to advise you, because you all dunce

  10. Hi, I am from India. People in Carrabean Islands may not know much about this fugitive called Mehul Choksi..

    He is most wanted criminal who looted billions of Dollars of Indian people’s savings kept in several banks. He also cheated millions of people who invested in his companies & 1000s of employees.

    He is a big cheater & very intelligent crook. Involved in biggest banking scam in India & looted billions of dollars of poor people money kept in banks.

    Not a word he says can be trusted. He is very good story tellar with crocodile tears & very smart operator to find ways to escape from procecution. What’s all kinds of crimes he committed in India are available in Google search.. there are several chargesheets on him by Indian police in several states..

    Interestingly.. the basis on which Mehul Choksi got Antigua citizenship is itself based on false declaration that he didn’t have any criminal cases/ proceedings against him in India in 2017 when he applied for his Antigua citizenship.. But from 2014 itself there were almost 30-40 FIRs / criminal cases filed in various courts all over India against him by several people in India from all states.

    This info is very much supplied to all Government investigation agencies.

    He must have bribed his way into getting Antiguan citizen ship as he has lots & lots of the looted booty of dollars from Indian banks.

    So based on that It’s not difficult to get his citizenship cancelled by Anitgua as the Antiguan PM himself is ready to cancel his citizenship.

    Once his citizenship is cancelled He can be deported to India as he is most wanted criminal in India & also has Interpole look out notices issued on him..

    I don’t know why both Antiguan & Indian Government is not doing this.

  11. MANDATORY VACCINATION IS IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE NUREMBERG CODE

    What Is the Nuremberg Code?
    When World War II ended in 1945, the victorious Allied powers enacted the International Military Tribunal on November 19th, 1945. As part of the Tribunal, a series of trials were held against major war criminals and Nazi sympathizers holding leadership positions in political, military, and economic areas. The first trial conducted under the Nuremberg Military Tribunals in 1947 became known as The Doctors’ Trial, in which 23 physicians from the German Nazi Party were tried for crimes against humanity for the atrocious experiments they carried out on unwilling prisoners of war. Many of the grotesque medical experiments took place at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Jewish prisoners were tattooed with dehumanizing numbers onto their arms; numbers that would later be used to identify their bodies after death. The Doctors’ Trial is officially titled “The United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.,” and it was conducted at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. The trial was conducted here because this was one of the few largely undamaged buildings that remained intact from extensive Allied bombing during the war. It is also said to have been symbolically chosen because it was the ceremonial birthplace of the Nazi Party. Of the 23 defendants, 16 were found guilty, of which seven received death sentences and nine received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment. The other 7 defendants were acquitted. The verdict also resulted in the creation of the Nuremberg Code, a set of ten ethical principles for human experimentation.

    What Are The Nuremberg Code’s Ethical Guidelines For Research?
    The Nuremberg Code aimed to protect human subjects from enduring the kind of cruelty and exploitation the prisoners endured at concentration camps. The 10 elements of the code are:

    1)Voluntary consent is essential
    2)The results of any experiment must be for the greater good of society
    3)Human experiments should be based on previous animal experimentation
    4)Experiments should be conducted by avoiding physical/mental suffering and injury
    5)No experiments should be conducted if it is believed to cause death/disability
    6)The risks should never exceed the benefits
    7)Adequate facilities should be used to protect subjects
    8)Experiments should be conducted only by qualified scientists
    9)Subjects should be able to end their participation at any time
    10)The scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment when injury, disability, or death is likely to occur

  12. Yes, you have stated the Nuremberg Code correctly. However, you will note that voluntary consent is necessary before any medical or scientific experiment can be conducted on a person. All the examples that the Nuremberg Code have outlawed and the Tuskegee syphilis experiments conducted between 1932 and 1972 had one thing in common and that is they were done without consent. Is a person taking the covid vaccine today voluntarily being subjected to an experiment without their consent?

    • Bingo… ARE the people being injected with the experimental gene therapy being given the correct information so that they can make an intelligent decision and give their informed consent for the shot? Are they being told the truth?

      Making the jab MANITORY takes away the people’s right to choose which is illegal under the Nuremberg code!

      As of May 10, there have been 4,434 reports of death and hundreds of thousands of injuries following a COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS reporting Agency. This is probably a low amount due to the fact that only 10% of cases ever get reported to VAERS. Compared to past vaccine adverse reaction reports, this represents a huge increase.

  13. TENMAN I really do not have time to respond to your initial stupidity. Choksi is an Antigua and Barbuda citizen. If he is still an Indian citizen then you, Gaston and the Minister of Foreign Affairs should be able to prove. Again, your comments are so stupid and ridiculous I choose to refrain from validating them with serious argumentation.

  14. Gaston Browne is the master of distraction and that is all he is trying to achieve. The Choksi issue is now in the news big time. This sordid affair involves abduction which points to probable involvement of people in Antigua. Gaston Browne should have ensured that an investigation be mounted instead of throwing Choksi immediately under the bus. Any Political Party obtaining any money from Choksi would most likely be the ALP and its officials. Gaston saying that the UPP sanitizing Choksi to get money is pure nonsense and his usual strategy of distraction.

  15. ANTIGUA WAKE UP

    May we all start our day today with a PEACEFUL mind, a JOYFUL heart and with a LOVING relationship to the world around us. At the start of this new day we have an opportunity to create a new reality, so let us IMAGINE the world that we would really like to live in.

    Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

    Quarantine Stress Disorder
    https://rumble.com/embed/vf6jij/?pub=4

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