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leilamulveny

Crowded N.Y.C. Jails Stoke Covid Fears: 'It's a Ticking Time Bomb' - The New York Times - 0 views

  • New York City’s jails were under such threat from the coronavirus last spring that city officials moved swiftly to let hundreds of people out of the crowded, airless old buildings. The effort shrank the jail population to its lowest point in more than half a century.
  • There are now more than 5,500 people in the city’s jails, slightly more than were detained last March. About three-quarters of the people being held have not been convicted. Many are awaiting trial much longer than usual, as the court system continues to operate at a near standstill during the pandemic.
  • Those behind bars are at high risk for contracting and spreading the virus, and correctional facilities have been home to some of the largest outbreaks nationally. Often, those outbreaks have spread into the community at large, as people shuttle in and out of detention. Few of those being detained in New York have been offered vaccines.
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  • Data kept by Correctional Health Services, which oversees care in jails, shows that infections and exposures in the jails crept up during January and February to their highest levels since last spring. A Department of Correction spokesman, in a statement, noted that the average test positivity rate in the jails was lower than in the city at large, though experts warn that the virus’s prevalence in jails can be hard to track.
  • The Department of Correction said that there were not widespread or systemic shortages of soap or other sanitary materials, and that staff members are subject to discipline for not wearing masks. The department also pointed to the ruling in a lawsuit filed by E.E. Keenan, a lawyer representing current and recent detainees at Rikers, in which a judge declined to order city jails to improve their hygiene regimens.
  • In the earliest months of the pandemic, public defenders and local officials, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, pushed for city prosecutors and state courts to release the most vulnerable populations from behind bars and introduced an early release program for people being held on a jail sentence of one year or less.
  • But none of the measures that the city took to release people were implemented on a continuing basis and the jails population began to grow anew in the summer.
  • Judges have also set bail and remanded people to pretrial detention in violent felony cases — which are not part of the state bail reform law — at higher rates than before the pandemic, according to a forthcoming report from the center. Alternatives to jail are being used less often. Public defenders said attempts to secure the release of people at high risk for contracting the virus have fallen short in recent months.
  • At least 700 people are jailed whose cases would likely have been resolved if not for the pandemic, according to the city. An additional 285 who otherwise would have been discharged to state prison to serve sentences are stuck in city jails, as those transfers are currently suspended, the Department of Correction said
  • “It doesn’t take a mental health professional to say that if somebody is living 24/7 in complete fear of death, that their mental health is not going to be that sound,” said Mr. Keenan, the lawyer who represented Rikers detainees in a lawsuit against the city over jail conditions. A group of guards have also filed a lawsuit saying that jail policies placed them at risk.
  • For Mr. Churaman, who was transferred to Rikers Island in July after a felony murder conviction was overturned and he awaited a new trial, the time inside was especially difficult.
  • Rigodis Appling, a Manhattan public defender, said that because her clients in jails experienced no relief from the pandemic — no time at which they were able to feel fully safe from infection — they were in a state of unrelenting anxiety.
hannahcarter11

Crowded N.Y.C. Jails Stoke Covid Fears: 'It's a Ticking Time Bomb' - The New York Times - 0 views

  • A year later, jails are more crowded than they were when the pandemic began. And there has been an increase in infections in recent months that could pose a public health risk even beyond the jail walls.
  • About three-quarters of the people being held have not been convicted. Many are awaiting trial much longer than usual, as the court system continues to operate at a near standstill during the pandemic.
  • In lawsuits, prisoners and guards alike have called the living conditions inside unsanitary and dangerous.
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  • Those behind bars are at high risk for contracting and spreading the virus, and correctional facilities have been home to some of the largest outbreaks nationally. Often, those outbreaks have spread into the community at large, as people shuttle in and out of detention. Few of those being detained in New York have been offered vaccines.
  • Data kept by Correctional Health Services, which oversees care in jails, shows that infections and exposures in the jails crept up during January and February to their highest levels since last spring.
  • The Department of Correction said that there were not widespread or systemic shortages of soap or other sanitary materials, and that staff members are subject to discipline for not wearing masks.
  • In the earliest months of the pandemic, public defenders and local officials, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, pushed for city prosecutors and state courts to release the most vulnerable populations from behind bars and introduced an early release program for people being held on a jail sentence of one year or less.
  • But none of the measures that the city took to release people were implemented on a continuing basis and the jails population began to grow anew in the summer.
  • udges have also set bail and remanded people to pretrial detention in violent felony cases — which are not part of the state bail reform law — at higher rates than before the pandemic, according to a forthcoming report from the center. Alternatives to jail are being used less often. Public defenders said attempts to secure the release of people at high risk for contracting the virus have fallen short in recent months.
  • Arrests for violent offenses, including for charges related to the city’s increase in gun crime, have also contributed to the rise, city officials say.
  • Once people are in jail, they are at the mercy of a court system operating in slow motion. People are spending an average of almost three months more in jail than they did before the pandemic, city data shows.
  • Doctors say the court delays have a direct effect on the mental health of those inside.
  • The uncertainty “leaves people feeling less in control and potentially even more hopeless,”
hannahcarter11

Inmates Riot At St. Louis Jail, Setting Fires And Breaking Windows : NPR - 0 views

  • For the second time this year, inmates at a jail in downtown St. Louis broke into a small riot.
  • The men threw chairs and other objects to onlookers down below as they chanted, "We want court dates!"
  • Social media posts from local reporters on the scene show the inmates setting a fire on the third floor of the building, according to KMOV4 in St. Louis.
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  • Inmates of the same jail caused a similar disturbance in February, according to local reports. It took law enforcement hours to calm that riot. During that outbreak, detainees were able to manipulate their cells' locks and walk around the jail.
Maria Delzi

BBC News - Khodorkovsky arrives in Switzerland - 0 views

  • Ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was freed from a Russian jail last month, has arrived in Switzerland where he has been granted a three-month visa.
  • Khodorkovsky flew to Germany after his release on 20 December.
  • He served 10 years in jail for fraud and tax evasion, but insists that his conviction was politically motivated.
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  • "You can't remain quiet when you know that political prisoners languish in jail," he said.
  • "I think campaigning for the release of those who have been jailed without justification is the job of every ordinary citizen. As far as I'm concerned, it
  • has nothing to do with politics," he added.
  • Khodorkovsky has not yet decided whether he wants to stay permanently in Switzerland, his spokesman said.
  • The businessman made his fortune from the controversial privatisation of Soviet state assets. In 1995, he acquired oil giant Yukos.
  • In 2005 he received an eight-year jail sentence for tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement. Two years before his release date he was convicted again on further charges of embezzlement and money laundering.
  • He had been due to be released next August, but requested a pardon because his mother is suffering from cancer.
  • The pardon came after Russian MPs backed a wide-ranging amnesty for at least 20,000 prisoners.
redavistinnell

Fake ambulance drug smugglers jailed for between 18 and 28 years | UK news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • Fake ambulance drug smugglers jailed for between 18 and 28 years
  • Three drug smugglers have been jailed for at least 18 years each for transporting as much as £1.6bn worth of cocaine and heroin into the UK using a fleet of fake ambulances.
  • A third man, Richard Engelsbel, 51, was given an 18-year jail term after admitting that he acted as a driver or driver’s assistant on 25 smuggling trips purporting to be journeys to pick up injured patients.
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  • The National Crime Agency (NCA) established that the gang trafficked drugs, packaged in colour-coded parcels and hidden behind false panels in the ambulances, from the Netherlands to the UK.
  • Sources within the NCA said they believed 20 different gangs around the UK relied on the ambulance racket for supplies of class A drugs.
  • He said: “The prosecution suggest this was a top-level, audacious, and – up to the point of interception and the arrests – a successful and lucrative criminal conspiracy.”
  • Inside the back of the ambulance, concealed behind panels in six “hides”, were neatly stacked, colour-coded packets of class A drugs, including cocaine with a street value of more than £30m and heroin worth £8m. Officers also found 60,000 ecstasy tablets.
  • The court was told that the company’s records showed the fake ambulance journeys had been “going on over weeks and months”. In all, at least 45 trips were made in 14 months.
  • Bijlsma was described in the court as Schoon’s right-hand man. The prosecution told the jury that a rivet gun was found with Bijlsma’s DNA on it. It said this gun was used to fasten the panels inside the ambulance.
anonymous

US woman faces 20 years in jail for 'insulting' Mugabe | Daily Mail Online - 0 views

  • An American woman was unceremoniously thrown in jail in Zimbabwe on Saturday because police say she is behind a Twitter account which mocks the country's president even though someone else has taken credit for it and continues to goad the leader from it. 
  • It labeled Mugabe, 93, a 'selfish and sick' man and suggested he was relying on a catheter. 
  • Her lawyers tried to have her arrest thrown out on Saturday but their motion was denied. They plan to go to the high court on Monday to appeal her jailing. 
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  • Authorities in Zimbabwe said they traced the IP address of the October 11 post to O'Donovan's home and they believe she is behind it.
  • She is now charged with undermining or insulting the president and may face an additional charge of attempting to overthrow the government. 
clairemann

Kenny Cooper jailed for 2 years without trial in Delaware - 0 views

  • Charges are set to be dropped against a Brandywine Hundred man who spent nearly two years in jail without a trial over accusations he threatened to kill his grandmother.
  • Skoranski said it was prosecutors' place to file that motion as he couldn't do something against the wishes of his client. The court ordered prosecutors to file the motion by the end of October 2017.
  • “The fact that the state has allowed Cooper to languish in jail on relatively minor charges — while it did nothing — is unacceptable and has forced the court’s hand,” Manning wrote.
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  • The threatening charge is typically a misdemeanor but because the victim in this case is elderly, it became a felony. The recommended sentence for that charge is nine months of probation, Skoranski said. The maximum sentence is two years in jail.
  • Superior Court Commissioner Bradley V. Manning called the Delaware Department of Justice delay in prosecuting the defendant, "frankly perplexing."
  • After repeated court inquiries, prosecutors responded by asking the court to reject the motion to dismiss. Their response, filed in February, did not address Cooper’s competency nor did it ask for an order to have Cooper medicated, court documents state. 
  • The Manning opinion, filed earlier this month, sided with Skoranski and noted that prosecutors knew about Cooper's condition and the likelihood it would not change since January 2017, but failed take action.
  • “The only conclusion I can draw is that the state has no interest in restoring Cooper to competency but is unwilling to drop the charges against him," the commissioner wrote.  
carolinehayter

Moscow Court Rejects Navalny's Bid To Leave Jail : NPR - 0 views

  • Alexei Navalny will remain in jail through at least Feb. 15, as a Moscow regional court rejected the Russian opposition leader's appeal of his detention. Navalny was arrested shortly after returning home from Germany, where he was treated for a near-fatal poisoning – an attack he blames on President Vladimir Putin's government.
  • Navalny's detention provoked widespread protests in Russia, which in turn have resulted in thousands of arrests. Navalny and his supporters have been able to spread their calls for demonstrations through TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, despite regulators' attempts to stifle that information. More protests are planned for this weekend.
  • As The Moscow Times reports, "Two days before his probation in a 2014 fraud case expired on Dec. 30, Russia's prison service threatened to convert Navalny's suspended sentence to a real prison term for failing to appear before probation officers while he was in Berlin."
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  • Navalny rose to fame for his investigations that exposed corruption, and for political mobilization against Putin's regime. He recently reprised that role, releasing a bombshell video that accuses Putin of using a slush fund to build a palace on the Black Sea. That report has now been viewed nearly 100 million times on YouTube.
  • Navalny says his fraud conviction was retribution for his activism. Election officials have also cited the mark on his record as justification to reject his attempt to run against Putin for the presidency.
  • With Navalny now ordered to remain in jail, a court will weigh imposing a prison sentence on Feb. 2 stemming from the earlier case, according to state-run media.
  • When Navalny was in Germany, he spent weeks in a medically induced coma as doctors sought to help his body recover from a variant of Novichok, a lethal Soviet-era nerve agent.
  • "There has been a lot of speculation lately that the convict Navalny was unable to show up at the inspectorate as he was in a coma," said Yelena Korobkova, a department head at the FSIN. "However, he had systematically violated the terms of his probationary period even before his hospitalization," she said, accusing Navalny of missing other dates in the first half of 2020.
julia rhodes

BBC News - Bahrain opposition leadership 'systematically targeted' - 0 views

  • The head of the main Shia political society in Bahrain has told the BBC that the opposition leadership is being systematically targeted by the state.
  • Khalil Marzook, is on trial for inciting youth violence and trying to overthrow the Sunni-led government.
  • "Khalil and the Wefaq party have always advocated a peaceful path to democracy and condemn violence," he insisted.
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  • In February 2011, many Bahrainis inspired by the Arab Spring gathered at the prominent Pearl Roundabout in the capital Manama calling for democratic reforms.
  • Many were from the majority Shia community, which has long complained of being marginalised by the Sunni royal family.
  • These included the prosecution of security forces personnel responsible for torture and the deaths of detainees, the release prisoners of conscience, and the reinstatement of dismissed Shia workers.
  • "The torture continues, unfair trials continue," he added. "Nearly 3,000 people are in jail and the numbers increase all the time.
  • But the idea is very clear. The authorities are saying we can put any one of you in jail whenever we want. "And this is their plan, to put all the opposition under pressure, target the leadership and put us in jail or force us out of the country or take away our citizenship." Mr Salman warned that if they jailed peaceful opposition leaders from groups such as Wefaq, only hardliners would remain and that would lead to more and more violence.
  • As a result, terrorists who are trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran, took advantage and threatened the safety of civilians in Bahrain
gaglianoj

'He was a healthy 19-year-old when he went in there.' Judge allows mother's suit over j... - 0 views

  • "He was a healthy 19-year-old when he went in there," said Tanyatta Woods
  • Deundrez Woods, an all-city wrestler at Huntsville High School, had been enrolled in summer school in 2013 when he was arrested for using a phony $100 bill at Wal-Mart. He was sentenced to jail for 60 days. His mother says the jail time was the result of an unpaid speeding ticket.
  • He'd been locked up for about three weeks when he appeared in court. But by then, she says, her son looked all wrong.
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  •  "You have to be there 30 days before you can see your son," said Woods of jail policy. "And he only lived 27 days."
knudsenlu

British dual citizen sentenced to six-year jail term, Iran reveals | World news | The G... - 0 views

  • British dual citizen sentenced to six-year jail term, Iran reveals Authorities claim unidentified British-Iranian citizen is ‘agent of England’s intelligence service’
  • Iran revealed on Sunday that it had sentenced an unidentified Iranian-British dual citizen to six years in jail for spying for Britain in a case that appears not to have previously been disclosed.
  • The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi had “referred to a six-year prison sentence for an agent of England’s intelligence service”. It quoted him as saying the same British-Iranian citizen was also under investigation in a separate case related to a private bank, giving no further details.
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  • At least two British-Iranian citizens are known to be held in Iran, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the parent company of Reuters, whose case was taken up by the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, during a visit to Iran in December.
  • Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least 30 dual nationals since 2015, mostly on spying charges, Reuters reported in November.
katherineharron

New Jersey will release low-level offenders from jail to prevent coronavirus spread - CNN - 0 views

  • The chief justice for New Jersey has ordered the release of hundreds of inmates in county jails by Tuesday "based on the dangers posed by Coronavirus disease 19."
  • "The reduction of county jail populations, under appropriate conditions, is in the public interest to mitigate risks imposed by Covid-19," New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner of the New Jersey Supreme Court wrote.
  • "Unprecedented times call for rethinking the normal way of doing things, and in this case, it means releasing people who pose little risk to their communities for the sake of public health and the dignity of people who are incarcerated," the statement said.
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  • And once the public health emergency concludes, Grewal said, the inmates will have to finish their sentences.
anonymous

Georgia Lawmaker Arrested As Governor Approves New Elections Law : NPR - 0 views

  • Democratic state Rep. Park Cannon, a Black woman, continued knocking on Kemp's office door after Georgia State Patrol troopers instructed her to stop.She said later she was arrested for "fighting voter suppression." A law signed by Kemp on Thursday includes new limitations on mail-in voting, expands most voters' access to in-person early voting and caps a months-long battle over voting in a battleground state.
  • It has been heavily criticized as a bill that would end up disenfranchising Black voters. It's also seen as Republicans' rebuke of the November and January elections in which the state's Black voters led the election of two Democrats to the Senate.
  • Cannon is facing a charge of obstructing law enforcement officers by use of threats or violence and she faces a second charge of disrupting general assembly sessions or other meetings of members.
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  • Georgia State Patrol spokesman Lt. W. Mark Riley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Cannon "was advised that she was disturbing what was going on inside and if she did not stop, she would be placed under arrest." Cannon's arrest warrant alleges that she "stomped" on an officer's foot three times as she was being apprehended and escorted out of the property, the AJC reported.
  • Several videos posted online show arresting officers were told repeatedly that Cannon is a state lawmaker.As she is being pulled away, Cannon identifies herself as a Georgia state lawmaker and demands to know why she is being arrested.
  • Other officers then arrive to block onlookers from interfering. They eventually bring a shouting Cannon backwards outside and into the back of a Georgia State Capitol patrol car.Cannon is 5 foot 2, according to her arrest record. Her arrest by several larger, white law enforcement officers and the image of her being brought through the Capitol prompted widespread condemnation on social media overnight. And her arrest prompted comparisons to civil rights and police brutality protests from this summer as well as those of the 1960s
  • Georgia's Constitution says lawmakers "shall be free from arrest during sessions of the General Assembly" except for treason, felony or breach of the peace.Cannon was charged and brought to a local jail. By 11 p.m. she had been released, according to her attorney Gerald A. Griggs, who spoke to a group of reporters and supporters outside the jail.
  • Griggs told the crowd that Cannon sustained bruising from her arrest. He was joined outside the jail by Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who visited Cannon in jail. He told the group that he is also Cannon's pastor.
  • The senator questioned what made Cannon's actions "so dangerous" that warranted her arrest.
anonymous

Alleged US Capitol rioter who heckled police for 'protecting pedophiles' served jail ti... - 0 views

shared by anonymous on 06 Jun 21 - No Cached
  • A Trump supporter accused of storming the US Capitol and heckling police officers for "protecting pedophiles" previously served jail time after being convicted in the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl, according to court records reviewed by CNN and lawyers involved in the cases.
  • Federal prosecutors say Sean McHugh of Auburn, California, fought with police as they fended off the massive mob of Trump supporters outside the Capitol on January 6. During the scuffle, McHugh was recorded by police body-worn cameras heckling the officers with a megaphone
  • McHugh was convicted in 2010 on a state charge of unlawful sex with a minor, according to California court records reviewed by CNN and lawyers involved in McHugh's cases. McHugh was sentenced to 240 days in jail -- though he served less -- and got four years of probation.
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  • There was DNA evidence that connected McHugh to the girl, former prosecutor Todd Kuhnen told CNN. The victim was 14 years old and McHugh was 23 when the crime occurred, Kuhnen said. The victim also alleged that she was intoxicated when the incident occurred.
  • McHugh has been charged with eight federal crimes tied to the Capitol insurrection, including trespassing charges and the more serious counts of obstructing congressional proceedings and assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon. He hasn't yet entered a plea in court.
  • He has been in jail since his May 27 arrest, a federal judge in the Eastern District of California ruled Tuesday that he should be detained before trial because he poses a threat to the public. His lawyers said in a court filing Thursday that they'll try again to secure his release.
  • At the time of the riot, McHugh was on probation for misdemeanor convictions for driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license, according to federal court documents.
  • McHugh has a long rap sheet of misdemeanor convictions, including multiple DUIs and trespassing offenses, according to Negin and a CNN review of California state court records. He is one of many rioters with criminal records, and he is one of a few rioters who were on probation or parole for other unrelated crimes when they went to the Capitol on January 6.
  • This undercuts recent false claims from some Republicans, who have whitewashed the violent attack and claimed that the rioters were well-meaning patriotic Americans with clean records. Republicans pushed this lie at a recent House hearing about Capitol security failures. Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar complained that "the FBI is fishing through homes of veterans and citizens with no criminal records" and claimed "law-abiding citizens" were being targeted.
yehbru

Opinion: What a journalist's jailing for heroic Covid coverage exposes about China - CNN - 0 views

  • a Chinese court had sentenced journalist Zhang Zhan, 37, to four years in jail for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." This follows the government indictment, which accused her of "publishing large amounts of fake information."
  • Zhang's real crime: to report factually on the ground at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, at its then epicenter, Wuhan, in video dispatches that challenged the government's official narrative. And then to stubbornly defy the Chinese government by insisting on her innocence.
  • Arrested in May, Zhang went on a hunger strike during her detention, according to Amnesty International. In response, prison authorities have restrained her and forced nutrients into her.
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  • Zhang, a lawyer by training, went to Wuhan on her own accord. Her reports consisted of talking to ordinary people about what they thought and posting the accounts on Twitter and YouTube.
  • Yes, sure, she also criticized the government response to the pandemic -- harshly, in fact. But in jail, with a lawyer's sensibility, she has repeatedly denied reporting false news and insisted Chinese law gives her the right to report.
  • Article 35 of China's constitution states: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration." During her trial, Zhang insisted that people's speech should not be censored.
  • On December 1, China held 47 journalists in prison, including Zhang, the most of any other nation, according to an annual prison census conducted by the CPJ.
  • Others have reported on human rights abuses or labor unrest.
  • Some, like Huang Qi, a pioneer of human rights reporting, are repeat offenders, have suffered from medical neglect and seen their lawyers forced to resign or even disbarred
  • For all these reasons, Zhang's trial and conviction are about much more than one person running afoul of China's ruling Communist Party. It shows that Chinese citizens can still muster the courage to defy the Communist Party.
  • Foreign governments dealing with China cannot ignore this reality, and they must insist that China end its repeated and gross violations of the human rights of its own people, including its journalists.
Javier E

Why Only One Top Banker Went to Jail for the Financial Crisis - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Over the past year, I’ve interviewed Wall Street traders, bank executives, defense lawyers and dozens of current and former prosecutors to understand why the largest man-made economic catastrophe since the Depression resulted in the jailing of a single investment banker
  • Many assume that the federal authorities simply lacked the guts to go after powerful Wall Street bankers, but that obscures a far more complicated dynamic. During the past decade, the Justice Department suffered a series of corporate prosecutorial fiascos, which led to critical changes in how it approached white-collar crime. The department began to focus on reaching settlements rather than seeking prison sentences, which over time unintentionally deprived its ranks of the experience needed to win trials against the most formidable law firms. By the time Serageldin committed his crime, Justice Department leadership, as well as prosecutors in integral United States attorney’s offices, were de-emphasizing complicated financial cases — even neglecting clues
  • The Andersen case was supposed to embolden the Justice Department, but it quickly backfired. Chertoff’s chutzpah shocked much of the corporate world and even many prosecutors, who thought the department had abused its powers at the cost of thousands of innocent workers. Almost immediately, the Andersen verdict resulted not in more boldness but in more caution on the part of federal prosecutors
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  • Chertoff told Biern, according to attendees, that if the Justice Department “can’t bring these cases because it may bring harm, then maybe these banks are too big.” In the end, though, Chertoff and the Justice Department blinked.
  • From 2004 to 2012, the Justice Department reached 242 deferred and nonprosecution agreements with corporations, compared with 26 in the previous 12 years, according to a study by David M. Uhlmann, a former prosecutor and law professor at the University of Michigan. And while companies paid large sums in the settlements — the days of $7 million cost-of-doing-business fees were over — several veteran Justice Department officials told me that these settlements emboldened defense lawyers.
  • Indeed, the department now effectively outsources many of its investigations of corporate executives to outside firms, which invariably produce reports that exculpate those at the top.
  • Over the years, the KPMG debacle and the corporate revolt would lead the Justice Department to roll back the Thompson memo to nearly the point of reversal. Today prosecutors are prohibited from even asking companies to waive their attorney-client privilege. They are also prohibited from pushing a company to cut off the legal fees for indicted executives or pressuring it to forgo joint defense agreements.
  • In the decade since, the courts dulled other prosecutorial tools.
  • Breuer may have come with the right pedigree, but he now faced troubles that hurt as much as the debacles of Arthur Andersen and KPMG, or the retreat from the Thompson memo: austerity. The department faced periodic hiring freezes. The F.B.I., which assigned dozens of agents to Enron, had shifted resources to terrorism. The Postal Service wound down an elite unit that had specialized in complex financial investigations. President Obama’s Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, which was designed to give hundreds of millions to prosecute financial criminals, was able to deliver only $65 million in 2010 and 2011. Prosecutors reporting to Breuer proposed setting up a mortgage-fraud initiative, a “Prosecutorial Strike Force,” as one July 2009 memo put it, but the Justice Department dithered. Finally it set up the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, an enormous coordinating committee with essentially no investigative operation.
jongardner04

Rwandan politician jailed for genocide - Africa | IOL News - 0 views

  • Kigali - Rwanda's High Court sentenced a former high-ranking politician and businessman on Friday to 30 years in jail for involvement in the 1994 genocide in which 800 000 minority Tutsi and politically moderate Hutus died.
Thomas Rhodes

Egypt jails 23 activists over protests - 0 views

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    An Egyptian court has sentenced 23 pro-democracy activists to three years in jail for holding an illegal protest, despite international calls to free them.
Javier E

Where George W. Bush was right - The Washington Post - 0 views

  • Yemen’s trajectory should not surprise anyone. It follows a familiar pattern in the Arab world, one that we are likely to see again — possibly in larger and more significant countries like Egypt.
  • Yemen was ruled for 33 years by a secular dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh. He ruthlessly suppressed opposition groups, especially those with a religious or sectarian orientation (in this case, the Houthis, who are Shiite). After 9/11, he cooperated wholeheartedly with Washington’s war on terrorism, which meant he got money, arms and training from the United States.
  • Since we have learned little from this history, we are now repeating it. The Obama administration praises Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who arguably rules in a more repressive manner than did Hosni Mubarak. Sissi’s regime has killed hundreds of protesters and jailed tens of thousands, mostly members of the political opposition, according to Human Rights Watch. It has censored the media and imprisoned journalists.
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  • This is the pattern that has produced terrorism in the Arab world. Repressive, secular regimes — backed by the West — become illegitimate. Over time they become more repressive to survive and the opposition becomes more extreme and violent. The space for compromise, pluralism and democracy vanishes. The insurgents and jihadists have mostly local grievances but, because Washington supports the dictator, their goals become increasingly anti-American.
  • But the repression ensured that, over time, dissent would grow. Saleh’s regime faced political and military opposition, and eventually, during the Arab Spring, he was forced to resign.
  • And it is not just the Obama administration. Intellectuals like Ayaan Hirsi Ali praise the general for wanting a moderate version of Islam. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) praises Sissi for his courage in calling out Islamists, contrasting him with President Obama. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) compares the general to George Washington for his singular determination.
  • But it is hardly unusual for an Arab military dictator to want a moderate form of Islam. In fact, that was the norm.
  • The fact that Bush’s administration so botched its remedy — regime change and occupation of Iraq — should not blind us to the fact that it accurately diagnosed the problem. The Arab world provides no easy answers, trapped as it is between repressive dictators and illiberal democrats. But that does not mean that blindly supporting the autocrats is the right answer.
  • As we ally ever more closely with Yemen’s and Egypt’s dictators and engage in joint military actions with the absolute monarchy of Saudi Arabia, we should be wondering what is going on in the shadows, mosques and jails of these countries.
malonema1

Journalist Arrested During Trump Inauguration Faces New Felonies That Carry Decades in ... - 0 views

  • Journalist Arrested During Trump Inauguration Faces New Felonies That Carry Decades in Jail
  • Journalist Aaron Cantu made an initial court appearance Friday to face new criminal charges that could carry decades in prison for alleged rioting and property destruction during President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Cantu, who works for the Santa Fe Reporter and has had articles published by Vice, The Nation, The Guardian and The Intercept, declined to comment inside a courthouse in the nation’s capital. His attorney Chantale Fiebig also declined to comment on the case, which the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has criticized. Cantu, wearing a suit and tie, appeared alongside more than three dozen other defendants crowded in a horseshoe around Judge Lynn Leibovitz. He accepted an Oct. 15, 2018 trial date and entered a not guilty plea for three separate rioting charges and five felony destruction of property charges.
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