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Africa Subsaharan
Son of Ex-President of Liberia Is Convicted of Torture
2008-10-31
The wheels of justice grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine ...
MIAMI -- A federal jury on Thursday convicted the son of the former president of Liberia of torturing suspected opponents of his father's government. It was the first case brought under a 1994 law that makes it a crime for United States citizens to commit torture overseas.

During the trial, witnesses said the defendant, Charles McArthur Emmanuel, 31, stood by and laughed as soldiers forced prisoners to play "stone football," kicking large stones until their bare feet were bruised and bleeding. One witness described having flaming plastic melted onto his skin, and another said soldiers had cut his genitals.

Mr. Emmanuel, who was known in Liberia as Chuckie and commanded a military unit known as the Demon Forces, was convicted of conspiracy and torture after two days of jury deliberations. He faces a possible life sentence. The case coincides with the trial of Mr. Emmanuel's father, Charles Taylor, in a war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities in West Africa during his presidency.

Elise Keppler, senior counsel for the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said that the verdict was a milestone in the fight against human rights abuses around the world and that she hoped to see more prosecutions like it. "That's going to be the key here," Ms. Keppler said. "This can't be an anomaly in U.S. practice, but should be the beginning of a trend where the United States actively prosecutes human rights violations committed abroad."
When committed by U.S. citizens, which is the key point here.
When the case began a month ago, defense lawyers said the witnesses had fabricated their stories for financial gain and to win political asylum. In opening statements, an assistant federal public defender said that if this case were a newspaper headline, it would read, "Desperate and disgruntled Africans accuse American to escape war-torn Liberia."

In court, as the guilty verdict was read aloud, Mr. Emmanuel sat quietly with his hands in his lap. When all 12 jurors agreed he was guilty, he looked over at his lawyer, who gently patted him on the back. He refused to stand when the jury was dismissed and seemed impatient to leave.

In a news conference afterward, United States Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said of Mr. Emmanuel, "The acts of which he was convicted were horrific."

Born in Boston, Mr. Emmanuel spent most of his life in Orlando, Fla., with his mother, stepfather and older sister. He joined his father in Liberia as a teenager, a few years before Mr. Taylor won the 1997 presidential election. He was arrested on charges of carrying a false passport when he arrived in Miami from Trinidad in March 2006.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  So from the first paragraph NoBaMa can rest easy when he puts some poor schmuck on the rack.....
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2008-10-31 14:56  

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