An eminent American think-tank has argued in favour of cancellation of citizenship of Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai, currently serving a two-year sentencing for secretly lobbying for Pakistani spy agency ISI, and ultimately his removal from the United States.
"In view of the significant foreign operational control and extensively long time frame establishing the background of Fai's criminal case, it would seem reasonable for federal authorities to continue aggressively pursuing all legal avenues available (against him)," said the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT).
"The avenues available include the revocation of Fai's citizenship, and ultimately his removal from the US," it said.
Fai is more than half way through serving a two year prison sentence after pleading guilty to felony charges relating to his lobbying work done secretly for the ISI.
But his release shouldn't be the end of Fai's interaction with the American justice system, Washington-based IPT said.
"If the court papers he signed are to be believed, Fai may have other violations of law to answer to - this time in immigration court," said IPT, which specialises on counter-terrorism issues.
Fai was sentenced in March 2012 after signing a plea agreement in which he admitted conspiring to act as an agent of the Pakistani government without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and with tax violations.
Serving at the federal correctional institution in Cumberland, Maryland, Fai received USD 3.5 million from ISI since 1990 to try to influence American policy on Kashmir.
Federal prosecutors said documents seized from Fai's home showed he was working with the ISI "for years before the KAC was even founded."
IPT said Fai admitted before the court that four years before he became the US citizen in 1994 his illegal activity started in 1990 when he opened the KAC, making it "likely he submitted false or misleading" answers to one or more of those pertinent questions when he applied for naturalization.
"A 10-year statute of limitations means that Fai won't be prosecuted for committing naturalization fraud. But there is no statute of limitations in stripping someone of their citizenship under 8 USC 1451.
"Evidence to support a civil revocation case against Fai would flow from what he admitted in his criminal case and a revocation case could arguably be initiated in either Virginia, where Fai last permanently lived, or in Maryland where he is currently incarcerated," IPT said.
"If the federal government pursued Fai's citizenship and prevailed, he would revert to the status he held before naturalization. That likely would have been a lawful permanent resident alien, or more commonly, someone with a green card. That, however, does not necessarily mean Fai gets to stay," IPT said, adding that there has been precedence in the past.
For example, it said, Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Fawaz Damra was convicted of naturalization fraud, stripped of his US citizenship and ultimately deported.
