Immigration and border officials detained George Boley on Jan. 15 on allegations that he is in the country unlawfully and that he committed killings in another country, according to Pat Riley, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Boley’s family contends that federal authorities have relentlessly pursued him because of baseless allegations that he committed war crimes in the African nation of Liberia. Federal authorities arrested Boley in 2006 on criminal immigration charges, alleging that he fraudulently used visas and other immigration documents to travel between Liberia and the United States.

Three months after his arrest, prosecutors had the charges dismissed after they failed to take the allegations to a grand jury in a mandated time.

A former City School District administrator and temporary service employee, Boley claims publicity about the allegations has prevented him from finding work.

Last year the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia, tasked with detailing possible human rights violations committed during the civil war, named Boley as one of eight people who should be prosecuted for their actions.

Boley testified at length before the commission, and the report did not detail allegations of specific crimes he committed. The commission also identified the Liberia Peace Council, or LPC, as a “significant violator group” that committed numerous war crimes.

One witness claimed that the LPC roasted alive captives from opposing factions.

In an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle last year, Boley said his organization was peacefully focused on trying to rebuild Liberia. Other groups also used the name Liberia Peace Council, he maintained.

Immigration officials would not release details about the charges against Boley, who is now being held at a federal detention center in Batavia.

He is scheduled to have a hearing later this month before an immigration judge to determine whether he should be deported to his home country.

The allegations of killings are not based on the findings of the reconciliation commission, which has no prosecutorial power, Riley said.

Instead, she said, immigration officials here conducted their own investigation.

But even that investigation is clouded in as much mystery as the questions of what Boley did as head of the LPC.

Late last year, after returning from his father’s funeral in Liberia, immigration officials told Boley they had questions about his ability to legally travel between the countries, according to Boley’s son, George Boley Jr. They ordered him to a Jan. 15 administrative hearing at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo.

At the hearing, he was detained on charges both that he was in the country illegally and that he committed “extrajudicial killings” — or killings outside the United States.

Immigration officials acknowledge that they did not levy those charges against Boley in November.

George Boley Jr., said last week that there was no prosecution of his father active in Liberia, as evidenced by his father’s ability to leave the country just months ago. Immigration spokeswoman Riley would not say whether there was any prosecution in Liberia planned for Boley.

“We’ve been taking about a war criminal a week these days, people who have allegedly done things in another country,” she said.

“Sometimes they are wanted in another country; sometimes they’re not.”

Immigration officials have a unit that works with international partners to investigate alleged human rights violations.

Boley’s son claims his father went to the Peace Bridge hearing and was told by authorities there to cross into Canada and come back.

Boley finally relented and did so after authorities were insistent, the younger Boley said.

When he returned, immigration officials detained him for entering the country illegally without proper documentation, Boley’s son said. The immigration officials already were holding Boley’s documents pending the hearing, he said.

Riley denied those allegations.

In a written statement, Boley’s wife, Kathryn Boley, wrote that her husband is clearly in the United States legally.

“It is a mystery to me how can a man, George Boley, travel for over 20 years in and out of the United States of America undocumented with out a valid green card and passport, especially with the new security changes set up by the U.S. Homeland Security after September 11, 2001,” she wrote. “As for human rights violations this allegation is faceless and without merit.”

Both claims — that Boley can’t be in the country legally and that he is a war criminal — will be the foundation of the immigration case against Boley.

“We have to convince an immigration court that these things happened,” Riley said.

Boley’s immigration lawyer, Allen Farabee, refused to comment.

In the interview with the Democrat and Chronicle last year, Boley said he welcomed any opportunity to prove he did not commit atrocities in Liberia.

“I want to be vindicated,” he said. “A serious wrong was done to my name.”

Source: Gary Craig
GCraig@democratandchronicle.com