Bat Khurts

Last updated

Bat Khurts is the former director of the Mongolia's General Intelligence Agency (GIA) (from 2014-2017) and former head of Executive Office of the Mongolian National Security Council and the former head of Independent Authority against Corruption (ATG).

General Intelligence Agency of Mongolia

The General Intelligence Agency of Mongolia is the intelligence agency of the Mongolian government, under the direct control of the Prime Minister of Mongolia. Its headquarters is in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. The GIA employs several hundreds of people and acts as an early warning system to alert the Mongolian government of national security threats. It collects and evaluates information on a variety of areas such as international terrorism, organized crime, weapons and drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration and information warfare.

National Security Council of Mongolia

The National Security Council of Mongolia (NSC) is a consultative body to the Office of the President of Mongolia. It focuses mainly on briefing high ranking national security and/or political figures on the state of internal and external threats in Mongolia. It also advises the President in his/her orders to the Mongolian Armed Forces under the Ministry of Defense and the National Police Agency under the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs. The NSC is affiliated with the larger Security and Foreign Policy Council and the Information and Analytical Council, the latter of which is composed of former politicians, military leaders, diplomats, and academics and intellectual experts.

Arrest

In September 2010, Khurts traveled to London. Upon landing, he was arrested and put in Wandsworth Prison because of a European Arrest Warrant issued by the German authorities. Consequently, the Mongolian government accused the UK of luring Khurts to London to be arrested. [1]

London Capital of the United Kingdom

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

European Arrest Warrant kind of extradition within the European Union

The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is an arrest warrant valid throughout all member states of the European Union (EU). Once issued, it requires another member state to arrest and transfer a criminal suspect or sentenced person to the issuing state so that the person can be put on trial or complete a detention period.

Khurts was imprisoned for allegedly arranging the kidnapping of Enkhbat Damiran, a Mongolian national who emigrated to France, and sending him back to Mongolia where he was then tortured. It was alleged that around 15 May 2003, Damiran, who was seeking asylum in France at the time, was kidnapped by officers of the General Intelligence Agency of Mongolia outside a restaurant in the French port of Le Havre, smuggled across the border to Brussels, and then to the Mongolian embassy in Berlin. He was briefly held at the embassy before he was drugged and taken in a wheelchair onto a Mongolian MIAT flight to Ulaanbaatar on 18 May. His arrival in Ulaanbaatar was not registered by the border police and he was taken to a secret location outside the capital. He was tortured, unsuccessfully, to confess to the brutal murder of the well-known politician Zorig Sanjaasürengiin, a former Minister of Infrastructure and a potential future prime minister. On 24 May, he was registered as a GIA informant and his entry into Mongolia was subsequently registered by the border police as 25 May. During his torture, it was alleged that Damiran was, among other things, forced to sit on a stool for hours, beaten on the liver with a pistol, and subjected to a mock execution. [2]

MIAT Mongolian Airlines is the Mongolian national airline, headquartered in the MIAT Building in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. The airline operates international scheduled services from its base at Chinggis Khaan International Airport near Ulaanbaatar.

Ulaanbaatar Capital and the largest city of Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar, formerly anglicised as Ulan Bator, is the capital and largest city of Mongolia. The city is not part of any aimag (province), and its population as of 2014 was over 1.3 million, almost half of the country's population. The municipality is in north central Mongolia at an elevation of about 1,300 meters (4,300 ft) in a valley on the Tuul River. It is the country's cultural, industrial and financial heart, the centre of Mongolia's road network and connected by rail to both the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia and the Chinese railway system.

Sanjaasürengiin Zorig Mogolian politician

Sanjaasurengiin Zorig was a prominent Mongolian politician and leader of the country's 1990 democratic revolution. He is called the "Golden Swallow of Democracy". After his death, his sister Oyuun entered politics and founded the Civic Will Party.

The Mongolian government apologized earlier for the kidnapping to the French, German and Belgian governments. [3]

Khurts' arrest had led to tensions between the governments of Mongolia and the UK. The controversy has escalated to what has been called "diplomatic war". [4] He was extradited to Germany in 2011 on charges of Verschleppung (Abduction or Kidnapping).

In September 2011, the charges of Verschleppung were dropped against Mr Khurts, three weeks ahead of a visit to Mongolia by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and he was released from prison and returned to Mongolia. [5]

Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany

Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and "leader of the free world".

Related Research Articles

Foreign relations of Mongolia

Mongolia has diplomatic relations with 188 states—187 UN states, the Holy See and the European Union. Of the states with limited recognition it has relations only with the State of Palestine.

HM Prison Wandsworth prison in Wandsworth, London

HM Prison Wandsworth is a Category B men's prison at Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South West London, England. It is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service and is one of the largest prisons in the UK.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan Mongolian politician

Khorloogiin Choibalsan (Mongolian: Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан, spelled Koroloogiin Çoibalsan between 1931 and 1941 and ᠬᠣᠷᠯᠤ᠎ᠠ ᠶᠢᠨ
ᠴᠣᠶᠢᠪᠠᠯᠰᠠᠩ before 1931, was the leader of Mongolia and Marshal of the Mongolian People's Army from the 1930s until his death in 1952. His rule marked the first and last time in modern Mongolian history that an individual had complete political power. Sometimes referred to as "the Stalin of Mongolia", Choibalsan oversaw Soviet-ordered purges in the late 1930s that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 Mongolians. Most of the victims were Buddhist clergy, intelligentsia, political dissidents, ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs and other "enemies of the revolution." His intense persecution of Mongolia's Buddhists brought about their near complete extinction in the country.

David Shayler MI5 whistleblower and conspiracy theorist

David Shayler is a former British MI5 officer and whistle-blower. Shayler was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act 1989 for passing secret documents to The Mail on Sunday in August 1997 that alleged that MI5 was paranoid about socialists, and that it had previously investigated Labour Party ministers Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw and Harriet Harman.

National Intelligence Organization (Turkey) intelligence agency

The National Intelligence Organization is the state intelligence agency of Turkey. It was established in 1965 to replace the National Security Service.

Human rights in Mongolia

Since its turn towards democracy in 1990, Mongolia has in principle acknowledged the concept of human and civic rights. “Human rights law,” according to one human-rights organization, “is a rapidly expanding area in the Mongolian legal system.” In September 2000, Mongolia unilaterally adopted the so-called “Millennium Goal 9,” which is “to strengthen human rights and foster democratic governance.” Writing in 2012 in the Jakarta Post, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Community who “led the first demonstrations for democracy and reforms in Mongolia,” that “the passion for freedom and human rights” is “palpable in his being.” Addressing an audience at the Asia Society in New York in 2011, Elbegdorj Tsakhia said: “Freedom, human rights, justice, the rule of law, those values can be enjoyed, even by the poor people, even by poor herdsman in Mongolia.” The desire for human rights, he said, “is always there,” in all people. “Sometimes that desire can be crushed by tyranny. But it will rise again. That is Mongolia.”

Sami Khiyami Syrian diplomat

Sami Khiyami is a Syrian diplomat, former Syrian ambassador to London.

Gunmen kidnapped Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary of the Iranian embassy, as he drove through Karrada district in central Baghdad, Iraq on 6 February 2007. The gunmen wore uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion uniforms - a special Iraqi unit under U.S. direction. The U.S. military denied any involvement in the kidnapping. After his release on April 3, the diplomat claimed he was tortured by CIA operatives. The U.S. government denies that they had involvement in the kidnapping and alleged torture of Sharafi.

Abu Omar case

The Abu Omar Case was the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. The case was picked by the international media as one of the better-documented cases of extraordinary rendition carried out in a joint operation by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) in the context of the "global war on terrorism" declared by the Bush administration.

Stalinist repressions in Mongolia Purges in Mongolia

The Stalinist repressions in Mongolia refers to a period of heightened political violence and persecution in the Mongolian People's Republic between 1937 and 1939. The repressions were part of the Stalinist purges unfolding across the Soviet Union around the same time. Soviet NKVD advisors, under the nominal direction of Mongolia's de facto leader Khorloogiin Choibalsan, persecuted individuals and organizations perceived as threats to the Mongolian revolution and the growing Soviet influence in the country. As in the Soviet Union, methods of repression included torture, show trials, executions, and imprisonment in remote forced labor camps. Estimates differ, but anywhere between 20,000 and 35,000 "enemies of the revolution" were executed, a figure representing three to five percent of Mongolia's total population at the time. Victims included those accused of espousing lamaism, pan-Mongolist nationalism, and pro-Japanese sentiment. Buddhist clergy, aristocrats, intelligentsia, political dissidents, and ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs suffered the greatest losses.

2008 Mongolian legislative election election

Legislative elections were held in Mongolia on 29 June 2008. A total of 356 candidates ran for the 76 seats in the State Great Khural. According to official results published on 14 July, at least 39 seats were won by the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), and at least 25 seats by the main opposition party, the Democrats (DP). Ten seats remained subject to possible recounts.

Dansranbilegiin Dogsom Mongolian politician

Dansranbilegiin Dogsom was a prominent Mongolian revolutionary leader and post-Revolution political figure in Mongolian People's Republic. He served as Chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Khural of the Mongolian People's Republic from 1936 until he was purged in 1939.

Contents of the United States diplomatic cables leak has depicted Europe and related subjects extensively. The leak, which began on 28 November 2010, occurred when the website of WikiLeaks—an international new media non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous news sources and news leaks—started to publish classified documents of detailed correspondence—diplomatic cables—between the United States Department of State and its diplomatic missions around the world.

Jambyn Lkhümbe Mongolian politician

Jambyn Lkhümbe was member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) from 1930 to 1933 and served as First Secretary of the MPRP Central Committee from July 30, 1932 to June 30, 1933. Lkhümbe was arrested in 1933 and accused of being the ringleader of a counterrevolutionary group conspiring to turn Mongolia into a Japanese protectorate. The ensuing "Lkhümbe Affair" resulted in the purge of numerous high-ranking politicians and military officers, with particular emphasis placed on the persecution of Buryat-Mongols. He was found guilty on June 25, 1934 and he was executed on June 30, 1934.

Stateroom (surveillance program)

STATEROOM is the code name of a highly secretive signals intelligence collection program involving the interception of international radio, telecommunications and internet traffic. It is operated out of the diplomatic missions of the signatories to the UKUSA Agreement and the members of the ECHELON network including Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Mongolia–United Kingdom relations Diplomatic relations between Mongolia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Mongolia – United Kingdom relations are bilateral relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Mongolia

Australia–Mongolia relations Diplomatic relations between Australia and Mongolia

Australia–Mongolia relations refers to the bilateral relations between Australia and Mongolia. Diplomatic ties were established in 1972, with ties focusing on education, mining, and developmental assistance.

References

  1. ↑ Dodds, Paisley (5 November 2010). "Mongolian spy invited to UK, arrested at airport". NBC News. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  2. ↑ "UN Commission on Human Rights, Report on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Mission to Mongolia". unhcr.org. 20 December 2005. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  3. ↑ Namjilsangarav, Ganbat; Satter, Raphael G. (5 November 2010). "Mongolian spy invited to UK, arrested at airport". newsvine.com. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  4. ↑ Milmo, Cahal (8 January 2011). "Mongolia declares diplomatic war on Britain over arrested spy". The Independent . London: INM. ISSN   0951-9467. OCLC   185201487 . Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  5. ↑ Milmo, Cahal (4 October 2011). "Whitehall anger over Mongolian spy chief release". The Independent. London.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.