Boris Mejoff vs. The Director of Prisons

Facts:

This is a second petition for habeas corpus by Boris Mejoff, the first having denied in a decision of this court of July 30, 1949. The history of the petitioner’s detention was: Boris Mejoff is a descent who was brought to the Philippines from Shanghai as a secret operative by the Japanese forces during the latters regime in this Islands. He was arrested as a Japanese spy by US Army Counter Intelligence Corps and handed to the Commonwealth Government for the disposition. Thereafter the People’s Court ordered his release. But it was found our by the Deportation Board that he has no travel documents and was illegally entered in this country. With this, it was ordered that he be deported on the first available transportation to Russia. On the contrary there’s no vessel available to take him back to ship the deportee abroad.
The court held the petitioner’s detention temporary and said that “temporary detention is a necessary step in the process of exclusion or expulsion of undesirable aliens and that pending arrangements for his deportation, the Government has the right to hold the undesirable alien under confinement for a reasonable length of time. Mr. Justice Paras, Mr. Justice Feustice Perfecto and the writer of this decision dissented. Stice Feria and Mr. Justice Perfecto voted for the outright discharge of the prisoner from custody. Mr. Justice Paras qualified his dissent by stating he might agree “to a further detention of the herein petitioner, provided that he be released if after six months, the government is still unable to deport him. Over two years having elapsed since the decision aforesaid was promulgated, the government has not found ways and means of removing the petitioner out of the country, and none are in sight, although, it was through no fault of theirs that no ship or country would take the petitioner. The petitioner claims that he is stateless and therefore have right to asylum.

Issue:

Whether or not the petition for habeas corpus be granted.


Ruling:

1. The petition is granted. A foreign national, not enemy, against whom no criminal detention. He also has the right to life and liberty and all other fundamental rights as applied to human beings, as proclaimed in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations, of which the Philippine is a member. The theory on which the court is given power to act is that the warrant for his without any of law. The possibility that he might join or aid disloyal elements if turned out at large does not justify prolonged detention, the remedy in that case being to impose conditions in the order of release and exact bail in a reasonable amount sufficient sureties.