While Matt DeHart appeared briefly inside a Buffalo court room after his deportation from Canada where he had sought political asylum, outside, a prominent international whistleblower support group hailed him for his courage.
Mr. DeHart, 30, was turned over to U.S. authorities by Canada Border Services Agency on Sunday and on Monday he was named the third beneficiary of the Courage Foundation, an international organization.
Mr. DeHart joins two previous beneficiaries, both well-known newsmakers: Edward Snowden, the former U.S. National Security Agency analyst who leaked documents revealing large-scale global surveillance, and Jeremy Hammond, serving 10 years in a U.S. prison after hacked email from security think-tank Stratfor was published through WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing organization.
“Canada’s actions are shameful. It may as well not have a border,” said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a statement. (WikiLeaks started the Courage Foundation and its acting director, Sarah Harrison, is also a WikiLeaks editor.)
“The abuse of the law in DeHart’s case is obvious, shocking and wrong,” said Mr. Assange.
In a tweet, WikiLeaks referred to Mr. DeHart as an “alleged WikiLeaks middleman.”
Mr. Assange remains in exile in Ecuador’s London embassy where he took refuge against extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning on sex-crime allegations.
VIDeo and more AT SOURCE: http://www.canada.com/news/national/Canada+shameful+denying+asylum+alleged+Anonymous+hacker+Matt/10856114/story.html
