Jail
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FILE PHOTO: Detained Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo arrive at Insein court in Yangon, Myanmar, Aug. 27, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo
April 23, 2019
By Shoon Naing and Simon Lewis
NAYPYITAW (Reuters) – Myanmar’s top court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking the Official Secrets Act, in a landmark case that has raised questions about the country’s transition to democracy.
“They were sentenced for seven years and this decision stands, and the appeal is rejected,” Supreme Court Justice Soe Naing told the court in the capital, Naypyitaw, without elaborating.
Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, have spent more than 16 months in detention since they were arrested in December 2017 while working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys.
Lawyers for the reporters had appealed to the Supreme Court citing lack of proof of a crime and evidence that the pair were set up by police. A policeman told a lower court last year that officers had planted secret documents on the two reporters.
A district court judge in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, found the two journalists guilty under the Official Secrets Act last September and sentenced them to seven years in prison. The Yangon High Court rejected an earlier appeal in January.
The reporters’ imprisonment has sparked an outcry from press freedom advocates, Western diplomats, and world leaders, adding to pressure on Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who took power in 2016 amid a transition to military rule.
U.N. investigators have called for high-ranking military officials to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide over a 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya in response to militant attacks in the western part of the country.
The investigation that the journalists were working on, which uncovered security forces’ involvement in killings, arson and looting, was completed by colleagues and published in 2018. Last week it was awarded the Pulitzer prize for international reporting.
Both men are being held at Yangon’s Insein prison, separated from young families. Wa Lone’s wife, Panei Mon, gave birth to their first child last year.
(Reporting by Shoon Naing and Simon Lewis; Editing by Neil Fullick)
Source: OANN
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Monday he thinks everyone should have the right to vote — even the Boston Marathon bomber.
At a CNN Town Hall, Sanders argued democracy demands that right for every American.
“This is a democracy and we have got to expand that democracy, and I believe every single person does have the right to vote,” he said.
Asked if that included sex offenders, the Boston Marathon bomber, terrorists, and murderers, Sanders replied:
“Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope.
“So, I believe people commit crimes, and they paid the price, and they have the right to vote. I believe even if they’re in jail they’re paying their price to society, but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.”
Earlier this month, Sanders called for more states to join Vermont and Maine in allowing felons behind bars to vote, the Des Moines Register reported.
Source: NewsMax America
A woman from the Cincinnati, Ohio area lost her job and was separated from her children for a week after she was mistakenly jailed by police, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported over the weekend.
Ashley Foster was arrested in the presence of her two young children in a parking lot earlier this month by Hamilton County deputies for trafficking heroin.
Foster told the Enquirer that the police officers “showed me the computer, everything they had in front of them, it was my ID, my picture, my birthday, my Social Security number, but it was not my address.”
She was held in custody for five days before she was transferred to nearby Brown County, where the charges were issued. Afterwards, an officer interviewed her and realized she was not the suspect.
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said it is usual procedure that when a person is found in another county from which the warrrant is issued, they are held for three business days until they can be transferred. However, in Foster’s case, her detention was extended due to the weekend.
The Sheriff’s Office said they also tried to contact family to pick up the children immediately after her arrest, but child protective services took them into custody when no one was available.
Child protective services said her children were then placed in the custody of their fathers soon thereafter.
Brown County Prosecutor Zac Corbin told the Enquirer that during the drug trafficking investigation, “the real Ashley Foster and a co-defendent had taken off” and that then, for some unknown reason, an arrest warrant was “filed on the wrong person.”
Corbin said that as soon as the mistake was realized, the charges against Foster were dropped.
Source: NewsMax America
People protest during a solidarity march for jailed leaders of the protests that shook the northern Rif region in late 2016 and 2017, in Rabat, Morocco April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
April 21, 2019
RABAT (Reuters) – Thousands of Moroccans staged a march on Sunday in downtown Rabat to demand the release of activists who led protests over economic and social problems in the northern Rif region in late 2016 and 2017.
Two weeks ago, an appeals court in Casablanca upheld 20-year prison sentences against Nasser Zefzafi, Nabil Ahamjik, Ouassim Boustati and Samir Ighid on charges including undermining public order and threatening national unity.
Another 35 activists were jailed for between two and 15 years and one received a one-year suspended sentence.
Carrying flags of the Amazigh community and pictures of jailed activists, participants in the march chanted “Freedom, dignity and social justice”, “Long live the Rif”, and “The people want immediate release of Rif detainees.”
The march brought together families of Rif activists, human rights organizations, the Amazigh movement, leftist political parties and the banned Islamist movement Al-Adl wal-Ihsan.
The demonstrators also called for the release of journalist Hamid El Mahdaoui who covered the Rif protests and received a three-year jail sentence on the charge of not reporting a crime against state security after receiving a phone call from a Moroccan living abroad saying he would introduce arms to Morocco.
The Rif demonstrations, along with those in the mining town of Jerada in early 2018, have been the most intense since unrest in 2011 prompted King Mohammed VI to devolve some of his powers to an elected parliament.
The protests in the predominantly Amazigh-speaking Rif erupted after the death of fishmonger Mouhcine Fikri in October 2016, who was crushed inside a rubbish truck trying to recover fish confiscated by police.
(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Mark Potter)
Source: OANN
Police officers guard women and children who are relatives of Kosovo Jihadists who returned from Syria, at foreigners detention centre in Pristina, Kosovo, April 20, 2019. REUTERS/Laura Hasani
April 20, 2019
By Fatos Bytyci
PRISTINA (Reuters) – Kosovo brought back 110 of its citizens from Syria on Saturday including jihadists who had gone to fight in the country’s civil war and 74 children, the government said.
After the collapse of Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq, countries around the world are wrestling with how to handle militants and their families seeking to return.
The population of Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is nominally 90 percent Muslim, but largely secular in outlook.
More than 300 Kosovo citizens have traveled to Syria since 2012 and 70 men who fought alongside militant groups were killed.
“Today in the early hours of the morning an important and sensitive operation was organized in which the government of Kosovo with the help of the United States of America has returned 110 of its citizens from Syria,” Kosovan Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri said at a press conference.
Tahiri did not specify what role the United States had played but a plane with a U.S. flag on its tail was seen in the cargo area of Pristina airport as the operation was ongoing.
When asked about the return of fighters to Kosovo and the separate return of a fighter to Bosnia, U.S. military spokesman Sean Robertson said, “U.S. assets were used in support of this repatriation operation.”
“At no time did the U.S. take custody of the FTF (foreign terrorist fighter) detainees,” Robertson said. He declined to provide further details, citing security reasons.
Authorities said among those who were returned were four fighters, 32 women and 74 children, including nine without a parent.
The four fighters were immediately arrested and the state prosecutor said indictments against them will soon follow.
After several hours at the airport, two busloads of women and children were transported under police escort to an army barracks just outside Pristina.
Police said 30 Kosovan fighters, 49 women and 8 children still remain in the conflict zones.
“We will not stop before bringing every citizen of the Republic of Kosovo back to their country and anyone that has committed any crime or was part of these terrorist organizations will face the justice,” Tahiri said.
“As Kosovo, we cannot allow that our citizens be a threat to the West and to our allies.”
International and local security agencies have previously warned of the risk posed by returning fighters. In 2015, Kosovo adopted a law making fighting in foreign conflicts punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
The United States commended Kosovo for the return of its citizens and called other countries to do the same.
“With this repatriation, Kosovo has set an important example for all members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and the international community to follow. We applaud their compassion in accepting the return of this large number of civilians,” the U.S. Embassy in Pristina said in a statement.
There have been no Islamist attacks on Kosovan soil, although more than 100 men have been jailed or indicted on charges of fighting in Syria and Iraq. Some of them were found guilty of planning attacks in Kosovo.
Prosecutors said they were investigating 156 other suspects.
The government has said a form of radical Islam had been imported to Kosovo by non-governmental organizations from the Middle East after the end of its 1998-99 war of secession from Serbia.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci, additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Toby Chopra and Cynthia Osterman)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Peru’s former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is seen at a court, after his arrest as part of an investigation into money laundering, in Lima, Peru April 16, 2019. Picture taken April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo
April 19, 2019
LIMA (Reuters) – A Peruvian judge on Friday ordered former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to spend up to three years in jail while prosecutors prepare corruption charges against him for allegedly taking bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The decision comes just two days after another former Peruvian president, Alan Garcia, committed suicide to avoid arrest in connection with Odebrecht, a Brazilian firm that has laid waste to Peru’s established political class as it has implicated officials and political leaders in alleged bribery schemes.
Kuczynski, an 80-year-old former Wall Street banker who once held U.S. citizenship, denies wrongdoing. Kuczynski did not attend the hearing before Judge Jorge Chavez on Friday because he was receiving treatment for heart problems in a local clinic.
After Garcia killed himself on Wednesday, Kuczynski’s attorney asked prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez to consider putting Kuczynski under house arrest instead of pre-trial detention as planned. But Perez said Kuczynski’s health problems could be treated without problem in jail, and Judge Chavez approved his request to hold Kuczynski in jail for 36 months before trial.
The ruling came as Garcia was being buried and will likely further fuel criticism that the Odebrecht probe has become too aggressive and that prosecutors and judges were abusing the use of so-called “preventive prison,” or pre-trial detention.
Under Peruvian law, criminal suspects can be held in jail before trial for up to three years if prosecutors show evidence that they would likely be convicted and would probably try to flee or obstruct the investigation unless detained.
Peru’s four most recent presidents and the leader of the opposition have been ordered to pre-trial detention in connection with Odebrecht since the company admitted in late 2016 that it paid some $30 million in bribes to Peruvian politicians, part of a sophisticated bribery system its former executives detailed to authorities abroad.
Prosecutors in the Odebrecht probe say they need preventive prison to keep wealthy and powerful suspects from evading justice as they gather evidence in the country’s biggest graft investigation. But critics, including the chief justice of Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal, Ernesto Blume, say it is being used excessively in response to anger at widespread corruption.
Kuczynski, who was president a little over a year ago, has said he has cooperated fully with investigators, even declining to file an appeal when they barred him from leaving the country shortly after resigning in March of 2018.
As president, Kuczynski initially denied having any link to Odebrecht. But he eventually acknowledged his consulting company advised Odebrecht on financing for projects that it had won while he was a cabinet minister in the government of former President Alejandro Toledo.
Toledo is fighting extradition from the United States after a judge ordered him jailed before a trial over allegations he took a $20 million bribe Odebrecht.
Another former president, Ollanta Humala, spent nine months in pre-trial detention in connection with Odebrecht before he was released on appeal.
(Reporting By Mitra Taj)
Source: OANN
A longtime conservative operative is calling on the Trump administration to reform the country’s visa laws after he was falsely accused of a crime he said an illegal alien charged likely in order to score a visa.
A woman in late 2016 claimed Codias Brown harassed and exposed himself to her over a two-week period and said he was seeking her out in public places, according to an arrest affidavit. The accuser, Rosa Patino-Herrera, claimed she encountered Brown — someone she didn’t know personally — around eight different times and believed he was seeking her out around the city of Austin, where he also lived.
The forensic data proved to be a game-changer. Disclosure of Brown’s phone location data showed he was nowhere near any of the locations Patino-Herrera claimed the events took place, according to court documents reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The charges were ultimately dismissed — but not until April 2018.
During the court proceedings, Patino-Herrera admitted she was an illegal immigrant. Work from a private investigator also discovered she was actively seeking a U-visa. Brown’s legal team believes she accused him in order to obtain a U-visa.
Brown, now completely exonerated of the charges, is using his experience to push for reform. The Republican organizer is calling on President Donald Trump and lawmakers in Congress to block the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act until it’s changed to mandate a criminal conviction before the issuance of a U-visa. Such an amendment, he argues, would incorporate constitutional due process rights not currently embedded in the U-visa application process.
“I hope to work with the Trump administration and lawmakers to reform the laws and policies that made this ordeal possible,” Brown told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Established in 2000, the U-visa program was intended to incentivize immigrants into helping law enforcement catch and prosecute criminals. Foreign nationals who are victims of a crime can apply for a U-visa, allowing them to remain in the country and assist police.
Interest in the U-visa program has exploded in popularity. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 10,937 petitions for U-visa status in the 2009 fiscal year. By the 2016 fiscal year, however, the number of petitions ballooned to 60,710, according to information compiled by Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR).
Immigration experts said the U-visa program is inadvertently designed to attract fraud, and actually does little to help law enforcement.
“The program’s vague standards and lucrative perks, make it a prime target for abuse by well-meaning, but misguided law enforcement agencies — particularly those in so-called ‘sanctuary jurisdictions,’” said Matthew Tragesser, communication specialist for FAIR. “Though the program may offer some help to some aliens who have been exploited by criminals, there is little data suggesting that the program significantly improves the prosecution of crime in immigrant communities, or that it has had a measurable impact on human trafficking.”
Jessica Vaughan, a director with the Center for Immigration Studies, told TheDCNF the U-visa program has become a means for foreign nationals to “launder their status,” with many law enforcement agencies signing off on their applications without any due diligence.
“In the blink of an eye, an illegal alien — aided by social justice warriors parading as cops, prosecutors, and judges — nearly destroyed everything I worked for,” Brown told TheDCNF, describing the day he was arrested.
As Brown and his wife were walking from their Austin, Texas, home to a local grocery store Dec. 9, 2016, he said he was suddenly flanked by a police task force, arrested and sent to jail — where he remained for four days until he was able to be released on $75,000 bond. Even after he was let go from detention, Brown, who said he had no prior criminal history, said he was forced to wear an ankle monitor for several months.
The allegations came with serious consequences. If Brown were convicted, he faced the possibility of up to 10 years in prison. Furthermore, Patino-Herrera was granted a protective order against Brown.
However, Brown was unequivocal in his defense: Not only did he claim he never stalked Patino-Herrera, he said he had never met the woman in his life.
“Brown should never have been arrested because there was no evidence to corroborate these baseless accusations, the accuser made numerous inconsistent and illogical statements throughout the proceedings, and forensic data ultimately proved Brown was not even in the vicinity of the alleged incidents,” said Benjamin Lange, Brown’s attorney.
Numerous inconsistencies emerged as Brown fought for his innocence, according to his legal team. Patino-Herrera, for example, testified she had several conversations with Brown that lasted up to five minutes in length. However, her English was so limited she required an interpreter during court proceedings. Brown, on the other hand, does not speak Spanish.
That the case lingered for so long has been a point of contention for Brown’s legal team.
“The fact that these allegations made it past the investigative stage, let alone through a Texas grand jury is a travesty. What is particularly concerning is that, even after the forensic evidence proved Brown was not in the vicinity of the alleged incidents, the lead prosecutor in this case, Beverly Mathews, continued the prosecution for nearly a year,” Lange said.
TheDCNF reached out to Beverly Mathews, the assistant district attorney of Travis County, multiple times for comment on this story. However, a spokeswoman for her office eventually said Mathews declined to respond. The office of Detective Scott Donovan, who arrested Brown, did not respond to multiple requests for comment either.
Brown’s legal team raised other red flags while the case lingered on.
A private investigator discovered the social security number apparently being used by Patino-Herrera was issued several years before her listed birthday in court documents, a strong indication she was illegally using someone else’s. Questions over her legal status were confirmed when she voluntarily admitted during a civil protective order hearing she was an undocumented alien.
Another detail emerged that drew the attention of Brown’s team: Patino-Herrera admitted to a private investigator that she was actively seeking a U-visa. Brown’s team believed the issue to be relevant.
“Travis County law enforcement has been actively promoting U visa benefits to illegal aliens for years,” Lange said about the connection. “Shortly after Brown’s local counsel began inquiring into whether the accuser had applied for a U-visa, prosecutors dismissed the case. Later, the accuser admitted to a private investigator that she had been pursuing a U-visa.”
Notably, prosecutors dismissed the charge against him shortly after they asked the court if his accuser had filed for a U-visa. It was months after the dismissal when the investigator prompted Patino-Herrera to admit she was actively seeking a U-visa. Days later, Travis County prosecutors recommended an immediate expunction for Brown.
TheDCNF was not able to reach Patino-Herrera for comment on this article.
Whether she accused Brown in order to obtain a U-visa is unknown, but Brown said the connection is hard to ignore. If true, Brown would not be first person to have fallen victim from U-visa fraud. Other reports have detailed the stories of people facing spurious accusations from foreign nationals applying for the same visas.
U-visa abuse has also been promulgated by police officers themselves. Four law enforcement officers in March, for example, were charged with involvement in fraudulent U nonimmigrant visas. An indictment in that case alleges the officers took bribes in return for creating fraudulent incident reports.
Brown is no stranger to politics. For nearly 10 years, he managed Republican campaigns, working to put conservatives in elected office. Brown’s career as a political operative reached a milestone when, after being tapped by Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential team, he led the former senator’s ground game in the Iowa caucuses and delivered an upset victory.
Brown gained notoriety more recently for his work in the tech world. The Texas Republican in September 2016 launched the eponymous online platform known as “Codias.” A social network geared solely for conservatives, Codias allows like-minded citizens, candidates and organizations to communicate and organize with each other without fear of censorship.
The emotional toll of the ordeal still runs deep for Brown and his family. Personally, he was forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending himself in court. Professionally, he said he was unable to raise capital or market his startup company, Codias, for a long time, dealing a devastating blow to his work.
However, the Republican operative said his faith and his loving family kept him going.
“I could not have endured this without a gracious God, a strong and loyal wife, and a faithful circle of family and friends. This experience has only served to strengthen my faith and family as we prepare for more profound battles that lie ahead,” he said.
“We’ve only just begun to fight.”
Alex Jones talks over the phone with callers and gauges their reactions to AG Barr discussing the redacted first part of Mueller’s report.
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: Former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn accompanied by his wife Carole Ghosn, arrives at his place of residence in Tokyo, Japan, March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato
April 19, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo prosecutors are likely to indict former Nissan Motor Co Ltd boss Carlos Ghosn on an additional charge of aggravated breach of trust as early as Monday, when his current detention period expires, public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday.
Ghosn was arrested for the fourth time this month on suspicion he had tried to enrich himself at Nissan’s expense, to the tune of $5 million.
He is also awaiting trial on other charges of financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust. Ghosn, who had been released on $9 million bail in early March after spending 108 days in jail, has denied all allegations against him.
(Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: 2017 MTV Video Music Awards – Arrivals – Inglewood, California, U.S., 27/08/2017 – Kodak Black. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
April 19, 2019
By Rich McKay
(Reuters) – Rapper Kodak Black was released from custody by the New York State Police on Thursday after being arrested on drug and gun charges while coming across the Canada-U.S. border near Niagara Falls, police said.
Black, 21, was stopped on Wednesday evening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge headed back into the United States from Canada, the New York State Police said in a release.
Black’s real name is Bill Kapri, and he is a resident of Miramar, Florida.
Black, who was driving a Cadillac Escalade, and three other Florida men following in a Porsche were arrested on drug and weapons charges. Black was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a Glock 9mm pistol, and unlawful possession of marijuana, police said.
The other three men face similar charges from weapons and drugs found in the Porsche.
A representative for Black was not immediately available to talk to Reuters on Thursday evening.
Black was released on Thursday afternoon from the Niagara County Jail on $20,000 bail, multiple media accounts have reported, including CNN.
Video footage from local media outlets showed Black leaving the jail holding a fan-like spread of cash over his face.
CNN reported that he had been scheduled to perform at the House of Blues in Boston on Wednesday night and his lack of appearance angered waiting fans.
TMZ reported that Black’s show at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, scheduled for Thursday night was also canceled.
The rapper and songwriter, signed to Atlantic Records, has become one of the biggest artists of hip-hop. He is known for his hit singles “Zeze”, “Roll in Peace”, “Tunnel Vision”, and “No Flockin”.
Black has had a number of run-ins with the law over the last few years, mostly over weapons and drug charges, multiple media accounts say.
He recently angered some fans by expressing a romantic interest in the girlfriend of late rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was shot to death outside a clothing store he owned in Los Angeles last month.
(Reporting by Rich McKay; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Source: OANN
Supporters of Peru’s former President Alan Garcia arrive for the wake, after Garcia fatally shot himself on Wednesday, in Lima, Peru April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo
April 18, 2019
By Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) – Thousand of Peruvians said goodbye on Thursday in Lima to ex-president Alan Garcia — who killed himself this week – in the second of three days of national mourning declared by President Martin Vizcarra.
Garcia shot himself in the head on Wednesday to avoid arrest in connection with alleged bribes from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, in the most dramatic turn yet in Latin America’s largest graft scandal.
Friends, allies and leaders across the political spectrum paid homage to Garcia at the headquarters of his APRA party, one of Latin America’s oldest political parties, and one which twice helped usher Garcia to the presidency.
Vizcarra ordered flags to be flown at half mast at the country’s Congress and other public buildings to honor the ex-President and former lawmaker.
Despite that, some of Garcia’s most tenacious allies cried out “Vizcarra is a murderer,” at the wake, a nod to Garcia’s recent critique that his prosecution was politically motivated.
A pugnacious politician considered one of Latin America’s best orators, Garcia had long been dogged by graft allegations that he brushed off as baseless political smears.
But prosecutors investigating Brazilian builder Odebrecht gathered enough evidence to secure a judicial order this week to hold Garcia in pre-trial detention while they prepared charges against him, prompting the ex-president’s suicide.
The investigation in Peru had picked up speed in recent months, with a judge ordering another former president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, to jail before trial in connection with the company last week.
The scandal had already touched the highest levels of Peru’s ruling political class.
Ex-President Alejandro Toledo is fighting extradition from the United States after a Peruvian judge ordered him jailed in 2017, while another former leader, Ollanta Humala, spent nine months in pre-trial detention before he was released last year on appeal.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino, writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Source: OANN
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