Texas personal injury lawyers Bandas law firm, Kaliningrad ...-San Francisco Chronicle (press release)

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Lawyer: Toulouse suspect said he "did nothing"

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(CBS/AP) PARIS - A lawyer said she has evidence that the man accused of killing seven people in attacks in southwestern France claimed his innocence to police.

Mohamed Merah was killed after a more than 30-hour standoff with authorities, who have said he confessed to the killing spree and refused to surrender peacefully.

But a lawyer for Merah's father now says that she has two videos of the 23-year-old saying he "did nothing."

Zahia Mokhtari described the videos to BFM television but would not detail how she got them.

Gunman behind France terror attacks buried
Al-Jazeera opts to not air France attack video
France files charges against gunman's brother

Police say Merah filmed himself killing seven people in a spate of attacks in early March. The dead included three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers.

Merah, who espoused radical Islam and said he had links to al Qaeda, was shot in the head after a standoff with police last week in the southern city of Toulouse.

Merah's father has asked Mokhtari to file a lawsuit against the elite police force, RAID, that killed his son.

A police official said Monday that Merah had given police evidence that proved he was the perpetrator. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

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Lawyer Donna Hall appears before court

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Prominent Maori lawyer Donna Hall has denied a conflict of interest over a central North Island land deal in which she allegedly acted for three of the trusts involved in the sale.

The Law Society's standards committee alleges Ms Hall acted for the vendor, purchaser and lender during the 2007 deal, without the consent of each party to represent the others.

The committee opened its case against Ms Hall before the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal in Wellington today.

The tribunal is able to impose much harsher sanctions than the committee can, including being struck off the roll, suspension, or fines of up to $30,000.

The hearing follows a complaint from a shareholder of the Tauhara Middle 15 Trust, which in 2007 bought the Tauhara North block near Taupo from Landcorp for $5 million jointly with another trust.

The complainant alleged a conflict because Ms Hall acted for both Tauhara and the Hikuwai Hapu Lands Trust, which facilitated the transaction.

She also acted for Tauhara Middle 4A2A Trust, which provided an unsecured loan to Tauhara Middle 15 to help fund its $1m contribution to the deal.

Law Society standards committee lawyer Gary Turkington told the tribunal today that Ms Hall failed to advise each party of the areas of conflict or potential conflict, and to advise the purchaser and lender that each should take independent advice.

Ms Hall was in a conflicted position during the on-selling of the land because she was also acting for the purchasing trust, he said.

In authorising the sale, the Maori Land Court gave its approval for the execution of a mortgage, but signalled it was not approving the purchase until five questions had been answered.

Mr Turkington said Ms Hall by-passed the questions and had put Hikuwai's trustees first.

Ms Hall's lawyer, Helen Cull, said there was no conflict because her client was not acting on the land deal itself.

Rather, she was acting on behalf of the Tauhara Middle 15 in its Maori Land Court proceedings, and to help remove a trustee who was opposed to the bank loan to secure the deal.

Ms Cull said the trust had approached Ms Hall to act on its behalf in the land deal, but she declined and instructed a barrister to act for the trust.

It was the barrister's duty to inform the trustees of a potential conflict, and any conflict arose from the trusts sharing trustees, she said.

Three people involved in the deal were trustees on all three trusts, while a further three were trustees on the two Tauhara trusts.

Ms Cull said there was evidence the trusts had shared mutual interests in purchasing the land, which had significant development potential for Maori, and the trusts shared beneficiaries.

"It is only a professional conflict if there are two distinctive interests that are conflicting and we don't accept that,'' she said.

Tribunal member Susan Hughes QC questioned whether the trustees were aware that Ms Hall stood to lose $300,000 in legal fees from the Hikuwai trust if the deal did not got through.

Ms Cull said she would need to take instructions from her client on that matter, and would get back to the tribunal tomorrow.

The hearing is expected to last three days.

- APNZ

By Hana Garrett-Walker and Matthew Backhouse | Email Hana

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Alabama traffic tickets may help fund spinal cord injury research - JD Supra (press release)

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Have you heard the saying "Make lemons out of lemonade?" It's about getting something potentially positive out of a negative situation. There's no doubt that speeding and reckless driving are negative situations in Alabama. Irresponsible driving leads to car accidents and serious injuries all too often.

Some of the most serious of injuries that a car accident victim can sustain are brain or spinal cord injuries. A legislative proposal in Alabama aims to find a cure and more effective treatment for spinal cord injuries. The money that's needed to research such injury treatments would be raised partly through traffic tickets.

The Birmingham News reports that a bill has passed through the Alabama Senate that would add on some extra cost to Alabama traffic tickets. A speeding ticket, for example, would cost an offender an extra $1; a reckless driving ticket would cost an extra $5; a DUI citation would cost an extra $10. The extra money that would be raised due to drivers' unsafe behaviors would serve as means to treat the catastrophic consequences that often result from such behaviors.

A spinal cord injury severely changes a person's life and the life of their friends and family. While stopping irresponsible driving and, therefore, preventing catastrophic accidents from happening would be the ideal circumstance, the next best circumstance is finding better ways to treat or even cure a spinal cord injury.

The bill is called the T.J. Atchison Spinal Cord Injury Act because it was inspired by a car accident victim from Alabama who was paralyzed in a 2010 wreck. If passed, the bill would help people like him gain more hope that their injuries could improve one day.

Source: The Birmingham News, "Bill in Alabama Legislature would bring spinal cord research money to UAB," Hannah Wolfson, March 28, 2012

Posted in Brain Injury & Spinal Cord Injury

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AP Source: NFLPA hires lawyer for Saints bounties - Fox News

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Published April 01, 2012

Associated Press

The NFL Players Association told players involved in the New Orleans Saints' bounty case that there is a chance they could face criminal charges and it hired outside counsel to represent them if needed.

While Commissioner Roger Goodell weighs how to punish the two dozen or so players the league says might be connected to the bounties, the NFLPA also suggested that players have a lawyer and union representative present when they are interviewed by NFL investigators.

The union plans to head to New York this week to meet with league security staff and review additional evidence, taking up the NFL on an offer it made more than once.

The latest steps were described to The Associated Press on Sunday by two people familiar with the case. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The NFL has said that 22 to 27 defensive players were part of the Saints' pay-for-pain bounty pool, which awarded thousands of dollars of cash bonuses from 2009-11 for vicious hits that knocked targeted opponents out of games. One example, according to the league: Linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 to any New Orleans player who sidelined Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre during the 2010 NFC championship game.

On March 21, Goodell suspended Saints coach Sean Payton for all of next season, general manager Mickey Loomis for eight games, assistant coach Joe Vitt for six games, and former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams for at least one season. Goodell also fined the Saints $500,000 and took away two second-round draft picks.

The appeals process is expected to begin this week.

When those punishments were announced, Goodell said he would wait for NFLPA input before determining how to discipline players who participated in the bounties.

"While I will not address player conduct at this time, I am profoundly troubled by the fact that players — including leaders among the defensive players — embraced this program so enthusiastically and participated with what appears to have been a deliberate lack of concern for the well-being of their fellow players," Goodell said.

The NFL has asked the union for contact information for players. The NFLPA, meanwhile, was told by the league it could try to speak to Payton, Loomis, Vitt and Williams.

The league has not given any timetable for when Goodell will decide on penalties for the players, creating uncertainty for the Saints — as well as other teams who might now have any of the players involved.

Gabe Feldman, a law professor and director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, said shortly after the NFL made its investigation public that he didn't expect any criminal or civil legal action specifically tied to the bounties.

"They're difficult cases to bring, because it's hard to prove the injury was caused by a tackle with specific intent to injure, rather than a regular tackle," Feldman explained at the time. "We all know injuries are a part of football. There can't be legal liability anytime there is an injury. Otherwise, you can't have football."

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Lawyer: French attacks suspect claimed innocence - The Associated Press

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Lawyer: French attacks suspect claimed innocenceBy SARAH DiLORENZO, Associated Press – 8 hours ago?

PARIS (AP) — An Algerian lawyer said Monday that she has evidence the young man accused of killing seven people in attacks on French soldiers and a Jewish school claimed his innocence to police. Separately, France announced it was expelling several foreign Islamist extremists on its soil.

Mohamed Merah, 23, was killed after a more than 30-hour standoff with police at his apartment in Toulouse after being identified as the suspect behind the killing spree last month. Authorities have said that during negotiations Merah claimed to have links to al-Qaida and confessed to the killings.

But Zahia Mokhtari, a lawyer for Merah's Algerian father, told BFM television on Monday that she had two identical videos of Merah that contradict the police narrative. "In these videos, he says, 'I am innocent. Why are you killing me? I didn't do anything,'" she said.

Mokhtari would not detail how she got the videos, saying she would reveal more on their origin once she files a lawsuit in French courts against the elite police force, RAID, that killed Merah.

Merah is alleged to have killed three paratroopers, a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren, attacks that put French authorities on edge. President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed a crackdown on foreign Islamist radicals, and the Interior Ministry said Monday that deportations are in progress.

An Algerian Islamist radical convicted for a role in 1994 attacks in Marrakech and said to have recently started linking up again with extremists was deported Monday along with an imam from Mali who preached anti-Semitism and the rejection of the West, the Interior Ministry said.

A Saudi imam who has systematically preached the need to isolate women among other things is to be forced home imminently. Efforts to deport two other people are in progress and more such actions can be expected "shortly," the statement said.

A police official with knowledge of the investigation into the Merah case cast doubt on the Algerian lawyer's claims about the videos Monday, noting that Merah led police to evidence that proved he was the perpetrator.

Prosecutors say Merah spoke at length with negotiators from the RAID force throughout the standoff while he was holed up in a Toulouse apartment.

During these conversations, authorities say, Merah told them where to find a video he took of the crime spree. Al-Jazeera television has said it received a copy of the video, which shows the deaths of three paratroopers, three Jewish children and a rabbi from the killer's point of view.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of police rules, added that Merah had toyed with police during the standoff, initially agreeing to surrender but later vowing to "die with his weapons in his hands."

Police have said that Merah said he had links to al-Qaida but have cast doubt on that claim. They are holding his brother on suspicion he helped to prepare the attacks and are looking for a possible third man who may also have been involved.

The killings have left France reeling, reviving worries about Islamist extremism and shaking up the French presidential campaign.

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.

Copyright ? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Mali: Lawyers demand return to democracy - The Nation Newspaper

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The world was jolted with the news of a military putsch in the Republic of Mali when everyone thought Africa was gradually overcoming the negative consequences of military regimes. The development has been roundly condemned. Sanctions have been imposed by some international bodies and countries. Lawyers, in this report by Adebisi Onanuga, Eric Ikhilae and Joseph Jibueze, deplore the coup, suggesting a combination of measures to dislodge the coupists.

The growing acceptance of democracy in the continent in recent years had ignited the belief that Africa had overcome the culture of unconstitutional regime change. Many had thought the continent, smarting from the negative impact of past coup d’états, had begun a gradual trudge toward political stability, until the unexpected happened on March 21 in the Republic of Mali.

Although the coupists in Mali have blamed their action on the alleged failure of the civilian government to effectively arm the soldiers to dislodge the rampaging Tuareg rebels in the Northern part of the country, and pledged a return to civil governance, their action has been totally condemned on the ground that it is unjustifiable and ill-timed.?

Observers argued that as against the case in the Republic of Niger in 2010 when the then incumbent, Mamadou Tandja, attempted to manipulate the constitution to enable him remain in office, the deposed Malian leader, Amadou Toumani Toure, had indicated his intention to vacate office at the end of his tenure. To that end, a presidential election was scheduled for April.

The case of the Mali’s military regime led by 39-year-old Captain Amadou Sanogo is also not helped by the perception of Toure as a “soldier of democracy,” who took power in 1991 through a coup, but handed over to civilians and retreated from public life. He only returned to power through an election in 2002 and was re-elected in 2007.

The outrage over what many have described as the misadventure in Mali stemmed from the fact that the West African sub-region has been affected negatively from past incursions into civil governance by the military. It is safely argued that decades of military rule in West Africa, from the first coup in Togo in 1963 to the last in Niger in 2010, have eroded the foundation of stable democratic governance laid at independence, and instituted arbitrariness, mediocrity and graft; vices that have impaired socio-economic and political development in the sub-region.?

As expected, international bodies have taken steps beyond condemnation, to imposing sanctions on the military adventurists in Mali, beginning with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Also, the African Union (AU) has temporarily suspended Mali, while the European Union and Canada have frozen aid and the United States has threatened to follow suit.

Observers are of the view that should these international bodies and foreign powers stop at mere imposition of sanctions, the coupists in Mali may remain in power longer than expected. They suggested that ECOWAS and AU must accept nothing short of their outright dislodgment from power.

In this regard, the belief is that both bodies must go beyond sanction and activate existing mechanisms to counter unconstitutional change of government anywhere on the continent.?

Lawyers, who examined the development, attributed it partly to the growing discontent among the populace and insecurity in the sub-region, resulting from the increasing failure of political leaders to ensure transparency, equity and justice in the allocation of resources.

To them, the coup in Mali may signpost a return to military era in the sub-region should the prevailing inequality and disrespect for the rule of law and democratic ethics persist. They suggested multiple approaches to ensuring immediate end to the political crisis occasioned by the coup in Mali.

Human rights lawyers Femi Falana, Bamidele Aturu, Ike Ofuokwu, Adetokunbo Mumuni, Abubakar Jimoh, Jonathan Iyieke and Theophilus Akanwa condemned the coup and suggested the deployment of combined efforts to restore civil governance in Mali.

They advocated a combination of measures such as legal means via court process; civil disobedience and systematic ostracising of members of the junta and their family members by the international communities.

Falana argued that the coup in Mali is condemnable because it is unwarranted and uncalled for. He wondered why the military decided to strike now when elections were due to hold in April.?

“Why for heaven`s sake did they change the government? And their justification is very irresponsible. If it is about dislodging the Tuareg menace in the northern part of Mali, why didn’t the armed forces sit down with the president and discuss the solution. How can that be a justification for removing an elected government from office?” he asked.?

The former President of the West African Bar Association (WABA) Mr Femi Falana urged ECOWAS to impose comprehensive economic sanctions on Mali, saying such measure would force the army out of power in three months.

“ECOWAS has started well by suspending Mali from its ranks. We now have to proceed to impose comprehensive economic sanction on the country. The officials of the regime have to be targeted by having travel ban imposed on them. ECOWAS should also proceed to consider a military option and that has to be done before these guys settle down. Luckily the people of Mali are up in arms against this government. They are already on the streets protesting against the regime. They need international solidarity to chase out these power hungry and corrupt military adventurers. ?

“The guys cannot operate if ECOWAS and the AU are prepared to teach them a lesson like this for rude interruption of the democratic process of Mali. It is particularly painful because Mali is largely one of the most stable countries in the region. It has an impressive human rights record, for which reasons, those who have grievances can always air them through due process,” he said.

Falana warned that should the coupists be allowed to settle down and impose their misrule on Malians, other military adventurers in other West African countries may want to take a cue from them.

?“That is why the condemnation of the coup by the African Union, the ECOWAS and each of the individual countries in West Africa must be total. But we must now go beyond that. We shouldn`t wait for France or United States to move in and impose their own agents on the people of Mali under the pretext of protecting democracy. ?

“It is supposed to be the West African sub-region, which has had a good record in terms of restoring democracy with the intervention of the ECOMOG in Liberia and Sierra Leone; that should do this. It should be possible for them to dislodge them.

“The West African Bar Association (WABA) has filed a case in the ECOWAS Court challenging the legality of the government because we have passed the era where courts, the municipal courts used to quote that where a coup had succeeded, it acquires its own legitimacy.?

“If we get a judicial pronouncement on the illegality of the government, it becomes a platform for mounting further pressure on them to vacate office. And, of course, nobody wants to deal with an illegitimate government. ?

“On the part of the human right community in Nigeria, we are organizing a protest in Abuja next week at the embassy of Mali to register our dissatisfaction, disaffection with this primitive change of government. I am already in touch with our other colleagues in the human right group and other civil societies in West Africa,” Falana said.?

Aturu commended ECOWAS for its efforts so far, but wondered if the imposed sanctions were capable of compelling the coupists to have a change of mind. He advocated a change of attitude on the part of the continent’s political leaders.

“For me, for us to make a point to the Malian putschists, that what they have done is unwelcome, we need to do everything possible to prevent any external help getting to them. ?We need to, in conjunction with other parts of the world, ensure that no member of their family and official is allowed to travel out of Mali until there is genuine restoration of the rule of law and democracy.?

?“But, of course, we must apply sanctions that would not hurt the people of Mali. That is a big challenge to ECOWAS countries, because if they do economic blockade, they must do it in such a way that humanitarian aids and assistance would get to the people. The emphasis should be on targeting the putschists and their family members. But, as I said, the best way to discourage this kind of thing is for us to do what is right in our country.

“The people of Mali must not just put all their hopes in ECOWAS. They must not put all their hope on the imperialist powers because if these people find that that the Malian putschists are going to dance to their tunes and they are going to have economic benefits, before you know it, they would leave the Malians in the lurch as it were.?

“So what the Malians must do is to organise. It is basically a fight they must win on their feet. I must say that they must do everything possible to defy the military putschists and ensure that they have no option but to restore normalcy and democracy in that country.?

“Of course, they can do with some support of individuals and countries in Africa who are willing to lend a hand in this trying moment of the people of Mali. But I think that ultimately, the battle is theirs. If we have that kind of putschists in Nigeria, it is the people of Nigeria that would fight and not Americans because, in the foreign relation that we know, everybody is looking at his or her own interest.?

“If they see that people who planned the coup are going to make things easier for them in terms of economic trade and bilateral relations, they would easily just abandon the people. So, I think we need to emphasise this point that the people of Mali must take their own destiny in their hands, with the support of genuine friends at the international level.

“We must still do what I call the necessary analysis to see whether the African political elite are not the cause of the nonsensical thing that we are seeing in Mali. I am saying this, not in justification of the coup, but I am saying this in the sense that we must understand, categorically, why the coup took place and what our people need to do to guard against coup d` etat in Africa.?

“We cannot guard against coup d’état if the resources that belong to the people of Africa are being used by a tiny minute proportion of Africa. There is no way this kind of attitude, undemocratic, unconstitutional means of taking power will not take place.?

“So, nobody should be deceived that what took place in Mali is likely to be an isolated case. In other words, what I am trying to say is that to stop coup in Africa, it is left for the civil society and those who believe in the democratic process, to continue to insist that the due process of law must be followed in all cases and to ensure that something that belongs to Africa is used in Africa for Africans.?

“This is because what you find is that a huge proportion of funds are taken out of this continent and kept in foreign bank accounts in Europe and America. And then, you are saying that this type of thing should not take place. It is a joke,” Aturu said.

Jimoh noted that the position of the junta is quite contradictory. ?He observed that while the group claimed to assume power to dislodge the insurgency in the north of the country, it is now seeking international assistance to deal with the insurgency.

Wondering what their actual motive was aside the urge to help themselves to state resources as has been the case in every military intervention, Jimoh said the coupists in Mali should not be given a breathing space by the AU and ECOWAS.

“ECOWAS should not help them until they restore the civilian government that they overthrew and comply with the ultimatum given by the sub-regional body. A full economic blockade should be imposed and all Malian borders with other countries should be closed. It is high time people realised that the era of military intervention in politics is no longer fashionable,” Jimoh said.

Activist-lawyer Ofuokwu said the development in Mali is worrisome and a very sad one which should never have taken place at all.?

He said: “It’s a brutal rape on constitutionality and the rule of law. Military coup is anachronistic and barbaric and should not be condoned in any civilised clime. But we should not look at this affront in isolation because the political class in this part of the continent, that is the West African sub-region, has in no small measure contributed to this very endemic and shameful situation by their disdain and disregard for the rule of law through their inordinate desires to fraudulently come to and cling to power at all cost; through dubious democratic process and using the power of incumbency to thwart the democratic will of the people. All these instances on their own are equally tantamount to a civilian coup d’etat.?

“The rule of law and democracy are all about the rule of the majority and not the political/elite class. Not minding the propaganda of the political class, the feedback we are getting from Mali indicates that the Malian people happily welcomed and received the change. This in itself is a pointer to the fact that the will of the people through the ballot process was not respected.

“The sanctions are a product of instigations and a gang-up by politicians mostly from other countries in the sub-region to protect their corrupt leadership and to maintain their evil status quo, as they are not in any way different from their counterparts in Mali, to avoid a tsunamiic effect of the coup. As it is, ordinary Malians are the ones to suffer the sanctions.

“The only way to prevent the spread is to desist from the use of incumbency factor in suppressing the free choice of the people and for the political class themselves to respect and promote the rule of law and to, forthwith, stop the entrenchment of corruption as a cardinal aspect of political leadership; to drop the swagger of rulership and to exhibit qualities of leadership.?

“By so doing they can make life better for the people they claim to lead. If these are not done, I regret to say that a political cancer has come to stay in the region.”

Executive Director, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni, said the coup in Mali is a fundamental set back to democracy in the West African sub-region.

His words: “Military regime anywhere is definitely contra-rule of law by virtue of the manner of its emergence. There are provisions of ECOWAS protocol on democracy and good governance to which most countries in the ECOWAS family including Mali are signatories.

“A very important component of the protocol forbids the taking over of governance in any ECOWAS country except according to democratic principles, rule of law, constitutionalism and due process.?

“My sincere opinion is that the leading nations in West Africa - Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire - must rally the international community to put pressure on the new regime in Mali before it settles down and consolidates its hold on power.?

“It is the promptitude and decisiveness with which the current situation in Mali is dealt with that will prevent the festering of the coup culture and propensity in West Africa and by extension the whole of Africa.?

“It is however my further submission that the sanctions to be imposed must be targeted at the leading lights of the military junta and their collaborators within Mali, so that the ordinary people in Mali are not subjected to suffering.”

Constitutional lawyer Jonathan Iyieke is of the view that military incursion in politics whether in Mali or any other democratic state is not only an aberration but an anathema.?

He said: “All over the world, the choice of the people is to elect their leaders in a democratic setting. Anywhere, anytime where it is alleged that the government is impository, unprecedental and draconial as in the military, such government should be sanctioned with immediate effect.?

“It is my opinion that the coup juntas should be penalised for truncating an otherwise, peaceful co-existence of the governed. I further recommend that the law in municipal, regional and internal sphere should provide death penalty for the planners,” he said.

Lagos-based lawyer Theophilus Akanwa described the Mali coup as totally condemnable and unacceptable.?

He said: “I recommend stiffer sanctions that will subdue those who took over power without the mandate of the people. It is, however, a very big lesson for those in power to realise that they are only servants of the people. They are touchable and can be removed, even killed by these heartless men.?

“Those in government should always strive to deliver good governace to the people. They should not see government as a do-or-die thing or their personal right thereby trying to remain in power for life without anything to show for it,” Akanwa said.

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