Hans Keil

Hans Keil is a Samoan politician. He was Samoa's Associate Trade Minister in 2007 ^[1] and has also been Samoa's Minister of Commerce, Industry & Labour.

Incident in September 2008

He featured in the news over an incident on 9 September 2008. While returning from an official trip to Brussels, Keil was held and shackled in Branson, Missouri by United States Immigration agents and locked up in jail. The armed agents that seized Keil did so because he carried two sets of passports. He had a U.S passport and a Samoan passport. The agents reasoning at the time was that one of them must be a fake. They didn't stop what has been considered an ill-considered arrest when he showed them his diplomatic passport.^[2]

A close to 10,000 signature petition was presented to the U.S. Embassy in Apia, Samoa after a peaceful march. Mark Moors who was one of the petition presenters and march spokesman told Radio New Zealand International correspondent in Apia, Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia that the petition would be passes on to Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of State. Only two people were allowed into the embassy to present the petition.^[3]

It was announced November 2009 that Hans Keil was suing U.S. government agents over the alleged unlawful detention. His lawsuit claims were as follows,

• Being unlawfully detained on 9 September.
• A warrant not being issued for his arrest until the next day.
• Being physically in custody for nine days.
• Being subject to basic house arrest four months in Branson.
• When he was arrested, not allowed to contact his embassy.
• Diplomatic passport was unlawfully seized.
• Not allowed to contact counsel when he was being interviewed by government agents.

In his petition it was alleged that the detention had prohibited him from attending to diplomatic duties. It also alleged that he was unable to attend to his personal business interests.^[4]

References