Following the announcement, the court ruled to postpone the parole hearing till May 23. “I’m declaring a hunger strike and order my defense lawyers not to take part in this court trial,” Alekhina stated.She participated in the hearing via videoconference from the penal colony in the Perm region in Russia’s Urals, where she is serving her two-year sentence for hooliganism over the Pussy Riot’s ‘punk-prayer’ in Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral. “Given that the Bereznikovsky city court [considering Alekhina’s parole release] is just across the road from the colony, the decision to deny her to attend the hearing can only be explained as humiliation,” tweeted Pavel Chikov, head of Agora, an association of human rights organizations.Prosecutor Lev Tashnikov said there was no need for Alekhina’s presence in the courtroom. The judge also said that there were no grounds for her to attend the hearing, as she could talk with her defense lawyer via the video link, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.During the Wednesday hearing, Alekhina also demanded that the judge – who refused to let her personally participate in the hearing – and the prosecutor recuse themselves from the trial. Prosecutor Tashkinov has personal enmity towards her, she argued. The court rejected both requests.Alekhina, 24, appealed for parole in April, seven months after the court sentenced her and two other Pussy Riot members to jail. Her fellow band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova – who is also serving a two-year sentence – was denied parole last month. The third convicted activist, Ekaterina Samutsevich, was released on probation in October last year.It is yet unclear whether Alekhina will participate in tomorrow’s court hearing. … Read More
Moscow court rules prison official not guilty in Magnitsky’s death
The court has rejected an appeal filed by Magnitsky’s relatives, contesting Kratov’s acquittal, instead seconding the original verdict.In late December, Moscow’s Tverskoy Court ruled that there was not enough evidence that Kratov was guilty of negligence. The ex-deputy head of the prison where Magnitsky died was the only official facing a trial in connection with the tragedy. Kratov says he has not decided yet whether he will demand compensation for the criminal proceedings lodged against him, now deemed false. But Interfax reports it’s unlikely he will take it any further.The lawyer representing Magnitsky’s family, Nikolay Gorokhov, said he will study the motivation behind the court’s ruling before making any decisions to appeal it.Financial lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, 37, died in pre-trial detention in Moscow in November 2009.He was working for the British investment fund Hermitage Capital, which became embroiled in a series of scandals between 2007-2009. Magnitsky accused a group of Russian officials of embezzlement. Soon afterwards he was arrested on charges of assisting Hermitage Capital to evade tax and was awaiting trial in Moscow’s Butyrka prison. He died in jail in 2009, about a year after his detention, of what doctors said was a heart attack. Magnitsky’s family demanded an investigation into his death.The lawyer’s sudden death caused a huge international scandal and accusations that Magnitsky had been tortured to make him withdraw his accusations. … Read More
Guantanamo denying detainees lawyer contact without invasive body search
See our timeline of the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike.Clive Stafford Smith, who currently represents several inmates at the US prison camp through the legal charity Reprieve, claims that guards at the facility are requiring invasive searches before detainees can conduct in-person interviews or even phone calls to lawyers.A copy of the letter was obtained by The Guardian, and states that as a direct result of the new policy two of Smith’s clients were recently barred from speaking with their legal representatives after refusing the searches.”The US military has started directly abusing prisoners who want to contact their lawyers to tell them what is happening. So anyone who wants to see a lawyer, or have a legal phone call, must have his fingers put up his anus and his genitals touched,” Smith writes.There are currently 100 inmates confirmed by US authorities as participating in the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay since it began in earnest back in February, 29 of whom are being force-fed via tubes.Five of those prisoners are being observed in the detainee hospital, according to a statement by US Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Samuel House on Monday. The official numbers differ from those of human rights activists, who have put the number of strikers at up to 130.The claims by Smith coincide with failure by one of his clients, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, to speak with him via telephone last Friday, allegedly due to the new policy. Moqbel, who is participating in the hunger strike, was the recent author of a New York Times op-ed which detailed the pain and emotional impact of being force-fed by nasal tubes. Agence France-Presse (AFP) has independently reported that another lawyer, David Remes, had two detainees he currently represents decline calls due to the new search procedures.”Under the new search policy, a detainee who leaves his camp is subject to a search including his private parts and holding his private parts,” Remes said.He added that the “shocking” searches were “designed to deter many detainees from meeting with their [lawyers] … to make their life more miserable and put the detainees in front of an impossible choice.”In response to the allegations, Lt. Col. Samuel House has told The Guardian that the new search procedures do not represent anything beyond a pat down:”Full frisk searches are conducted in a professional manner to quickly locate and identify contraband hidden on the body. The searches are conducted with clothes on, similar to a pat-down search conducted by an airport security screener,” says House.According to House, the new procedures were enacted “in light of contraband discovered during recent cell searches.”For his part, Smith believes the allegedly invasive searches cannot be justified.”Any pretext given for these new rules is just that: a pretext. The prisoners do not need to be sexually assaulted in order to be taken to a telephone to talk to their lawyer,” he said. … Read More
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s requests for lawyer were ignored
According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, highlighted by Glenn Greenwald this week, the delay in reading Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights may be the least in possible abrogations in constitutional legal procedure in the FBI’s interrogations. Tsarnaev reportedly requested an attorney repeatedly but was ignored. There has been some debate as to whether the “public safety exception” was appropriately invoked to delay Mirandizing the 19-year-old suspect, but, as Greenwald writes on denying requests for a lawyer, “this is much more serious”:If the LA Times report is true, then it means that the DOJ did not merely fail to advise him of his right to a lawyer but actively blocked him from exercising that right. This is a US citizen arrested for an alleged crime on US soil: there is no justification whatsoever for denying him his repeatedly exercised right to counsel.Continue Reading… … Read More
‘Boston bomb a $700 billion security failure’
http://www.youtube.com/v/5zTn6dVuq_Q?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Link to original: ‘Boston bomb a $700 billion security failure’
Ricin charges dropped against Elvis impersonator
A US man accused of sending a poison-laced letter to the White House was released from jail with his charges dismissed Tuesday as officials searched the home of a rival. Paul Kevin Curtis beamed as his lawyer waved the dismissal order at a news conference held shortly after investigators in hazmat…
Boston Bombing Suspects’ Relatives Speak to Media
Yesterday afternoon, the FBI
released photos of two suspects in Monday’s Boston Marathon
bombing. A firefight with police last night
left one suspect dead and police have
launched a massive manhunt for the other,
identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, originally from
Chechnya. Now family in North America have reacted to the
media.
An uncle, from the Baltimore Sun:
An uncle of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon
bombing delivered an emotional interview in front of his Montgomery
Village home on Friday, calling his nephews “losers” while
imploring one who fled an early morning police standoff that left
the other dead to turn himself in.
An aunt, with a very different reaction, from the Toronto
Star:
The aunt of the ;two Boston bombing
suspects ;is calling for additional evidence showing they are
behind the acts.
“I am a lawyer and there are four of us in the family,” Maret
Tsarnaev told reporters Friday at her Toronto home. “I can’t
lightly accept this kind of accusations without supporting
evidence. Forgive me, but I cannot.
“Could it be staged? I have to question everything. That’s my
nature.”
Follow these stories and more at ;Reason 24/7 ;and don’t forget you
can e-mail stories to us at 24_7@reason.com and tweet us
at ;@reason247. … Read More
