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February 27, 2015

European Court: Iraq War Resister Must Give War Crimes Evidence for Asylum 
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There is a new development in the case of a U.S. soldier who went AWOL
in 2007 and sought asylum in Germany because he opposed the war in Iraq.
The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice ruled that to obtain
asylum, André Shepherd would need to show that he would have been
involved in war crimes if he had followed orders to deploy to Iraq.
Shepherd spoke Thursday in Munich.

André Shepherd: "What happens when you have a soldier, such as myself,
who isn't a conscientious objector from the perspective that I want to
reject every single war, because of course defensive wars I find to be
okay? You have to defend yourself, of course. But Iraq wasn't one of
those. They didn't help the Iraqi people at all. They certainly didn't
help the American people at all. And all we have is senseless death and
destruction, and, of course, the rise of ISIS. So, why would I want to
take part in that?"

The final decision in Shepherd's case will be made by a German court.

 

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