Canada

Expert Witness Radha Stirling has supported dozens of immigration and asylum cases over the past decade, providing expert testimony and evidence to prove that the applicant would be ‘at risk’ in the event of their deportation.

Asylum applications are difficult at the best of times. But what happens when there is an Interpol Red Notice active or a trumped up criminal charge in another country? A country will be deterred from offering asylum and may even consider deportation. For people in this situation, deportation could literally mean life in prison, torture or death. US and Canadian authorities may see a life or death claim as far-fetched, after all, we are not talking about Syria or Afghanistan here but often our strongest allies. The burden rests with the applicant to persuade a government to grant asylum, even where they have criminal charges or an active Interpol warrant.

As in the case of Andre Gauthier, who was an unwitting victim “...of the West turning a blind eye to Dubai money laundering”. Says Radha Stirling.

“A foreign national in the UAE can be locked up without evidence, forced to confess to crimes they didn’t commit, be beaten and tortured or even killed as with Lee Bradley Brown."

Gulf in Justice Podcast - André Gauthier HOME after

Dubai jail nightmare - with Radha Stirling

"We have dealt with hundreds of cases of foreigners who have been locked up by corrupt authorities and Sheikhs who need a foreigner to blame their crimes on. It’s impossible to defend one’s self in the legal system. It takes a diplomatic effort, as with André, to save an innocent person. This happens time and time again and it is indeed a by-product of our alliance. André Gauthier has made significant financial losses as a result of his wrongful detention.”

In 2019, two Canadian citizens were detained in China in what was widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese executive in Canada. These incidents, along with Wang's situation, raise serious concerns about the rule of law and due process in China, particularly in relation to foreign executives, professionals, and investors.

This is not the first time that foreign executives have faced travel bans or disappeared in China. In 2018, the former head of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, disappeared during a trip to China and was later accused of corruption.