Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, Calif., USA)
A Cambodian who fled to the United States in 2000 after assassination attempts by political rivals was ruled eligible for asylum Monday by a federal appeals court, which said his work as a prison guard for the post-Khmer Rouge regime did not implicate him as a persecutor.
Pauline Im, who now lives in Fresno with his wife, was denied asylum by an immigration judge in 2003 because of the nearly two years he spent as a guard in a small Cambodian prison run by the Vietnamese army. Some of the prisoners were members of the Khmer Rouge, the communist movement that the Vietnamese ousted in 1979.
Im's duties included feeding the prisoners, taking them to bathe and receive medical attention, and unlocking their cells and handing them to another guard who would take them away for interrogation.
The immigration judge concluded that Im would face political persecution if he returned to Cambodia - a finding that would ordinarily qualify him for asylum in the United States - but he said Im was ineligible because he had taken part in persecution.
The appeals court, in a 3-0 ruling, disagreed, saying not everyone who works in an oppressive system is implicated in persecution.
The panel cited the Supreme Court's reference to a guard who had cut the hair of concentration camp inmates before their execution, conduct the court described as ghastly but only peripheral to persecution. By contrast, the appeals court ruled last year that a man who acted as an interpreter for Peruvian guardsmen while they interrogated and tortured their prisoners provided essential services for the persecutors and was ineligible for asylum.
Im played no more than a marginal role in the mistreatment of prisoners, said Judge Betty Fletcher: He never beat a prisoner, did not select anyone for imprisonment or interrogation, and merely followed superiors' instructions to unlock cell doors, something anyone else could have done.
The ruling makes both Im, 53, and his wife, Ngin Sitha, 48, eligible for asylum. The couple run a doughnut shop in Fresno and have a 15-year-old daughter in Cambodia whom they haven't seen in six years, said their lawyer, Emmanuel Enyinwa.
Im's family was killed when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, and he was put to work as a forced laborer, the court said. After working as a prison guard following the Vietnamese invasion, he joined a guerrilla movement, was imprisoned and tortured by the Vietnamese, but then was released and became a political activist and congressional candidate.
While working for the largest opposition party in 2000, he received death threats, then had his car and his house fired on by unknown assailants, who Enyinwa said were most likely adherents of a rival party. While Im's party filed a complaint with the United Nations, Im and his wife fled to the United States and applied for asylum.
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
Pauline Im, who now lives in Fresno with his wife, was denied asylum by an immigration judge in 2003 because of the nearly two years he spent as a guard in a small Cambodian prison run by the Vietnamese army. Some of the prisoners were members of the Khmer Rouge, the communist movement that the Vietnamese ousted in 1979.
Im's duties included feeding the prisoners, taking them to bathe and receive medical attention, and unlocking their cells and handing them to another guard who would take them away for interrogation.
The immigration judge concluded that Im would face political persecution if he returned to Cambodia - a finding that would ordinarily qualify him for asylum in the United States - but he said Im was ineligible because he had taken part in persecution.
The appeals court, in a 3-0 ruling, disagreed, saying not everyone who works in an oppressive system is implicated in persecution.
The panel cited the Supreme Court's reference to a guard who had cut the hair of concentration camp inmates before their execution, conduct the court described as ghastly but only peripheral to persecution. By contrast, the appeals court ruled last year that a man who acted as an interpreter for Peruvian guardsmen while they interrogated and tortured their prisoners provided essential services for the persecutors and was ineligible for asylum.
Im played no more than a marginal role in the mistreatment of prisoners, said Judge Betty Fletcher: He never beat a prisoner, did not select anyone for imprisonment or interrogation, and merely followed superiors' instructions to unlock cell doors, something anyone else could have done.
The ruling makes both Im, 53, and his wife, Ngin Sitha, 48, eligible for asylum. The couple run a doughnut shop in Fresno and have a 15-year-old daughter in Cambodia whom they haven't seen in six years, said their lawyer, Emmanuel Enyinwa.
Im's family was killed when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, and he was put to work as a forced laborer, the court said. After working as a prison guard following the Vietnamese invasion, he joined a guerrilla movement, was imprisoned and tortured by the Vietnamese, but then was released and became a political activist and congressional candidate.
While working for the largest opposition party in 2000, he received death threats, then had his car and his house fired on by unknown assailants, who Enyinwa said were most likely adherents of a rival party. While Im's party filed a complaint with the United Nations, Im and his wife fled to the United States and applied for asylum.
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
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