$5.3 Million--and Amnesty : Lottery Luck Strikes Twice

A Nicaraguan immigrant who won a $5.3-million lottery jackpot got more good news today as immigration officials reversed themselves and granted his application for political asylum.

Justo Ricardo Somarriba, along with his wife and three children, had faced the prospect of having to take the money back to Nicaragua if the INS backed a State Department finding that his political asylum claim was frivolous.

But today INS District Director Perry Rivkind said he personally has reviewed the case and granted the asylum.

“This has nothing to do with the jackpot,” Rivkind said. “(In Nicaragua) he was a teacher in the government education department, and he resisted propagandizing on behalf of the Sandinista Marxist government.”

That could subject him to political persecution if he returned to his homeland, Rivkind said.