Last Updated on October 13, 2023, 1:01 AM AST by Anthony Morris
In their recently released reports, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) incriminated the former Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid.
In OCCRP reports, Khalid has been accused of human rights abuse, and it paints a quite complicated image of the political landscape, particularly given the Former Chief a close alliance with the US during his tenure in the Afghan government.
What makes this chharacterization more suspicious is the ties of Khalid with the American leaders. Former US President has close relation with Asadullah Khalid. Even former President of the country, Obama visited Khalid in 2012 at a Virginia hospital, and that visit showed the direct relationship between the two of them.
Khalid was a key figure in the US and also a trusted ally of the US government for many years.
It definitely raises a question as to why OCCRP overlooked or potentially omitted this significant aspect from their report.
This omission was perceived as an incomplete representation, especially considering the wide context of Khalid’s associations.
Khalid came into contact with US when he was a member of the anti – Taliban resistance late in the 1990’s. He was a trusted ally of the US government for many years and a key figure in the United States’ effort to stabilise Afghanistan.
It raises the suspicion that the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has purposely failed to mention Khalid’s close ties with US in their recently released report on the Dominica citizenship by investment programme.
Most importantly, Asadullah Khalid was only accused of “human rights violation” but never formally “charged” in a court of law.
The OCCRP continuously highlight that since 2007, Dominica has provided citizenship to approx. 7,700 individuals. However, it is important to specify that this data is not restricted to those people who availed citizenship through the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme it also includes individuals who achieved citizenship through marriage and various sources.
Despite conducting a deep investigation on Dominica, OCCRP could only find 26 people out of 7,700 who seemed to have some connection to illegal activities, even though it is unclear.
When these 26 people became citizens of Dominica, they didn’t have any records of being involved in criminal activities.
In their report, OCCRP misses that Dominica has already revoked over 260 citizenships because of hiding the ‘material fact’ in their original document submissions.
The OCCR’s research is expected to make people worried about how accurate and complete they have done on Dominica because, somehow, this research widely impacts the nation’s program and progress.
If we understand the OCCRP article, they just spread misleading information about Dominica. The article says that for Dominica’s citizenship, interviews were not needed until July 2023, but this is not the complete truth.
Dominica was the first country to make interviews mandatory for people applying for its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program in July 2023. This kind of mistake raises the question of why these facts are not given in the report.
In Caribbean countries, maintaining gazettes in paper form has been a common practice, and it’s not something that only happens in Dominica. In Dominica, the names of people are recorded clearly when they become citizens of Dominica.
These records are easily available in archives and libraries of Dominica for the public, where they make copies of these important papers.
The OCCRP’s article seems to say the same things that the opposition UWP has been saying for a while, especially when discussing Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
The opposition has made similar claims about the Prime Minister for many years.
The OCCRP is also saying that the Prime Minister got rich because of the Citizenship by Investment Program (CBI) program. But they don’t show any proof to support these claims.
Christian Henrik Nesheim said,” After a month of investigation into the tens of thousands of citizenships historically granted by Dominica, the Guardian found:
- Two individuals who have “allegations” (no convictions or even trials) against them;
- 3 individuals who obtained citizenship many years before becoming wanted men.
- A single individual with a prior conviction should not have received citizenship in Dominica – 19 years ago!
In other words, the investigation reporters found ONE legitimated oversight from among a selection of tens of thousands, and it’s from two decades ago.
The investigative journalists are, according to the author, grasping at straws
He urged The Guardian to try running a similar investigation on the 827,000 people who received EU citizenship in ordinary ways in 2021 and see if you find the same infinitesimal fraction of criminals.”
Along with OCCRP, The Guardian make the same allegation against Dominica in their recent reports. But their incomplete investigation make it clear that they spread propaganda against Dominica under opposition’s influence.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
