Alarm after FBI arrests US army veteran for ‘conspiracy’ over protest against Ice

Legal experts say charges against Afghanistan war veteran Bajun Mavalwalla II mark an escalation in the Trump administration's crackdown on first amendment rights

The arrest of a US army veteran who protested against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has raised alarms among legal experts and fellow veterans familiar with his service in Afghanistan.

Bajun Mavalwalla II - a former army sergeant who survived a roadside bomb blast on a special operations mission in Afghanistan - was charged in July with conspiracy to impede or injure officers" after joining a demonstration against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in Spokane, Washington.