André Shepherd

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André Lawrence Shepherd (born May 21, 1977 in Cleveland , Ohio ) is an American former member of the US Army and deserter . He applied for political asylum in Germany . It was the first asylum application by a US deserter in Germany.

Life

André Shepherd is from Cleveland, Ohio. Before joining the US Army, he lived in a precarious situation. Shepherd had dropped out of college and was homeless in his car. He survived by doing odd jobs.

Then he decided to sign a contract with the army and started his service in 2004. As a soldier in a mechanic unit, he was transferred to Iraq in 2004 . Shepherd renewed his contract twice. According to Shepherd, before his contract expired, he was told that he would no longer be deployed to Iraq if it were renewed. If he were to retire, however, there is a high probability that he would be drafted again as a reservist . After his voluntary renewal, he received the second marching orders to Iraq.

War effort and desertion

With his desertion on April 11, 2007 and the application for asylum on November 26, 2008, he escaped his return to Iraq. Previously, he worked in Iraq during the Iraq war from September 2004 to February 2005 as a maintenance technician for Apache attack helicopters . He saw the US mission in Iraq as a war of aggression that was contrary to international law and believed that the helicopters he was servicing were involved in war crimes . However, he extended his period of service before his second operational order for Iraq. He fled from the Katterbach barracks belonging to the Ansbach Army Heli Pad . He hid with friends and then applied for asylum, which was rejected on April 4, 2011.

Legal proceedings

On April 7, 2011, Shepherd instructed his lawyer to bring an action against the refusal of the asylum decision. In 2013, the asylum application he had submitted in November 2008 was to be heard before the Administrative Court in Munich ; instead, the procedure for a preliminary ruling before the European Court of Justice was suspended. In a judgment of February 26, 2015, the ECJ ruled that a deserter from a third country with a merely supporting role could also be granted asylum if the likelihood of future war crimes was high. Refugee protection, on the other hand, is excluded if the applicant has not primarily sought recognition as a conscientious objector , unless such a procedure was not available to him.

A complaint by Shepherd against the negative decision was dismissed in the decision of the administrative court published on November 17, 2016. Attorney Reinhard Marx will prepare an appeal for his client.

André Shepherd is supported in his asylum procedure by Connection e. V. supports.

Prizes and awards

On February 7, 2009, he received the Peace Out of Conviction Prize from the Munich American Peace Committee for his behavior . On September 18, 2010, he was awarded the taz Panter Prize by the taz Panter Foundation . In September 2015 he received the human rights award from the Pro Asyl Foundation .

documentary

  • Nancy Brandt: Out of Society , Germany / Serbia 2013

literature

Neumann: The case of the deserted US soldier Shepherd, Zeitschrift für Ausländerrecht (ZAR) 2016, p. 17

Podcast

"The moment" (original podcast by Audible GmbH ), episode 10: "The deserter"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Felix Neumann: "The case of the deserted US soldier Shepherd." In: ZAR 2016, pp. 17-22.
  2. ↑ Interview in Spiegel-Online from December 2, 2008
  3. ↑ a b Patrick Guyton: US deserter fights for German asylum: the Army shot civilians . In: the daily newspaper . ( taz.de [accessed on November 17, 2016]).
  4. ^ Sarah Lazare: André Shepherd, Iraq War Resister, Applies for Asylum in Germany . In: AlterNet . January 8, 2009 ( alternet.org [accessed November 17, 2016]).
  5. ↑ A US deserter asks for asylum in Europe , zeit.de
  6. ↑ Press release of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees ( memento of July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) of April 4, 2011
  7. ^ Statement by André Shepherd
  8. ↑ Judgment of the Court of Justice (Second Chamber) of February 26, 2015: Andre Lawrence Shepherd v Federal Republic of Germany, Case C-472/13, ECLI : EU: C: 2015: 117 ( curia.europa.eu ).
  9. ↑ Beck Online: ECJ: High demands on the asylum claim of a deserter of the US armed forces ( Memento of February 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , February 26, 2015.
  10. ↑ Impression of the bias in the asylum procedure, press release from Connection eV and Pro Asyl
  11. ↑ Andre Shepherd at Connection e. V.
  12. ^ Price Peace Out of Conviction 2009 for US deserter André Shepherd , Connection eV, February 7, 2009
  13. ↑ taz Panter Award 2010 - "Would we do that too?" , At taz.de, September 19, 2010
  14. ↑ FOUNDATION PRO ASYL: André Shepherd receives human rights award, proasyl.de
  15. ↑ trailer
  16. ↑ Review
personal data
SURNAME Shepherd, André
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sheperd, André Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American deserter
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio