London
Cnn
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The British government has been temporarily prevented from concluding its agreement from transferring the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the AP media reported, after an 11th hour injunction by a high court judge.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends to return the islands to the African country, while keeping control of the American military base of Diego Garcia, and it was planned that the agreement was signed on Thursday.
But shortly after 2 a.m., local time (9 p.m. HE Wednesday), a judge prevented the government from finishing its negotiations with Maurice after the agreement was challenged by Bertrice Pompe, a Chagossian woman living in Great Britain who opposed the agreement on the reasons for human rights.
A hearing will take place later Thursday morning.
The agreement turned out to be intensely controversial. London should pay billions of pounds to conclude the agreement, and Mauritius depends strongly on imports from China, which raised national security problems on both sides of the Atlantic.
Grant Shapps, a former conservative minister of defense, told CNN earlier this year that the plan was “crazy”.
“(China) will use a territory to expand their influence. They spy,” Shapps told CNN. “Many sensitive things take place in British military bases. So you don’t want to be surrounded by potential opponents.”
Great Britain has checked the region since 1814 and, in 1965, it divided the Chagos of Mauritius before this former colony became independent. London has kept control of the archipelago and renamed it as the British territory of the Indian Ocean.
He then expelled nearly 2,000 inhabitants in Mauritius and Seychelles to create a space for an air base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, which he rented in the United States.
