Mexicans Who Foiled Alleged Cyberattack Plot Against U.S. Granted Asylum in Canada Douglas Quan - Postmedia News
go to original October 29, 2014

Three Mexican nationals who helped to expose an alleged plot by Iran, Venezuela and Cuba to launch cyberattacks on nuclear facilities in the United States have been granted refugee protection in Canada, an unusual case that a federal judge recently said is more befitting a spy novel.

The trio, now residing in Vancouver, argued that their lives would be in danger if they were returned to Mexico and produced evidence that the lead whistleblower back home had been deliberately infected with a rare virus that had been created in a medical lab.

An adjudicator with the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) said the trio had a well-founded fear of harm.

“What was done to (the lead whistleblower) is a strong indicator of what the claimants may face if they are returned to Mexico,” adjudicator Michal Mivasair wrote in granting them asylum.

Her decision was written in March but only came to light recently because Chris Alexander, the federal citizenship and immigration minister, challenged the decision in Federal Court, arguing that the IRB had not fully considered the options for state protection in Mexico.

But federal Judge Anne Mactavish this month upheld the IRB decision, saying that the trio — who cannot be identified by court order — demonstrated that Mexico “had refused them protection in the past, and was disinterested in protecting them in the future.”

Read the rest at Canada.com

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