Growing Body of Law Allows Prosecution of Foreign Citizens on U.S. Soil

[WestVirginiaRebel]

NY Times:

Arrested in Djibouti while he was en route to Yemen from Somalia, far from his home in Britain, Madhi Hashi was baffled to find himself jailed in Manhattan.

 

He admitted to prison officials that he was a member of the Shabab, the Somali militant group. But he “did not understand why he had been brought to the United States to stand trial,” he told them, according to court documents.

 

The world of soccer was roiled by a similar surprise late last month, heads snapping from Italy to Argentina, when Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced that Brooklyn prosecutors had indicted FIFA officials from the other side of the globe, on corruption charges.

 

Using a growing body of law that allows the United States to prosecute foreign citizens for some actions, the government has been turning the federal courts into international law-enforcement arenas.

 

In terrorism cases, the broadening of a key law in 2004, the splintering of terrorist groups and a shift away from military detention has led the United States to bring more foreigners onto its soil, some with only a tenuous link to the United States.

 

Perhaps no federal prosecutor was more aggressive about expanding her office’s global reach than Ms. Lynch when she was the United States attorney in Brooklyn, and the FIFA arrests suggest that now that she leads the Justice Department, overseas cases are likely to become even more of a priority.

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