Lawyer: Toulouse suspect said he "did nothing"

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

(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.

View the original article here

Lawyer Donna Hall appears before court

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

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

View the original article here

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

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
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."

View the original article here

Lawyer: French attacks suspect claimed innocence - The Associated Press

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
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.

View the original article here

Pflugrad, O'Day lawyer up after firings at UM - Billings Gazette

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

MISSOULA — Why? Why were University of Montana Grizzlies football coach Robin Pflugrad and athletic director Jim O’Day fired?

One of the most frustrating things about UM President Royce Engstrom’s actions Thursday was that he gave no reason.

No surprise there, said attorney Dylan McFarland of Milodragovich, Dale, Steinbrenner & Nygren.

When any corporation or large organization such as a university fires a prominent person, “the fact is that the corporation or the company doesn’t want to be tried in the court of public opinion,” said McFarland, who was a standout UM offensive lineman and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 2004.

“There’s certainly a potential for legal ramifications and they’re just trying to protect themselves,” he said.

Pflugrad and O’Day already have lawyered up. Pflugrad met Thursday, the day he was fired, with Milt Datsopoulos of Datsopoulos, MacDonald and Lind, the firm that has represented several UM football players accused of running afoul of the law in recent years. The two also are longtime personal friends, Datsopoulos said Friday.

“The approach that the university used to dismiss or relieve these two gentlemen of their positions has created great ambiguity and rumors,” he said.

O’Day has hired the Billings law firm of Edwards, Frickle and Culver. Cliff Edwards won a $240,000 settlement for former Montana State University football coach Mike Kramer after MSU fired him. Edwards’ son John, who played quarterback for the Grizzlies, said Friday he couldn’t discuss any matters related to O’Day.

As with Pflugrad and O’Day, Kramer was fired after a highly publicized series of legal woes involving football players. After his firing, then-MSU president Geoff Gamble said: “We have this whole suite of criminal activities, but there are academic issues and compliance issues. They all are in the realm of leadership issues.”

Kramer sued, alleging that statement damaged his career and reputation. And, he maintained that UM’s Bobby Hauck, who preceded Pflugrad as Grizzlies head coach, was treated differently by the university system. Hauck was kept on even though several football players were arrested for violent crimes.

Neither Pflugrad nor O’Day has sued — yet. “As a practical matter, we’ve got to provide advice to Robin Pflugrad in terms of what his legal options are,” Datsopoulos said. “We’ve got to wait to see what the university says now as to what their reasons are to terminate him or for relieving him.”

UM needs to clarify the matter of Pflugrad’s contract, he said. The coach’s present three-year contract has a year left, and he’d been promised another three-year contract, Datsopoulos said.

Pflugrad cited that second contract when recruiting coaches and players, he said. “People relied on the fact that they would have jobs for at least three years, and made decisions to relocate their families and change the directions of their own careers,” Datsopoulos said. “The decision to terminate Robin Pflugrad has impacted the lives of many people and I hope that the university administration realized that before they made this precipitous decision.”

At some point, he said, the university will need to negotiate “some type of package that recognizes their legal obligations.”

The reason for Pflugrad’s firing will be part of those negotiations, he said.

“Why didn’t they just advise these people that they wanted to avoid any further fallout and these guys were going to be the people they were going to throw under the bus to avoid that kind of development? Be straightforward about it,” he said.

Which brings things back to why.

A Facebook site called “Demand Answers” asks that same question, as does a Friday editorial in the Montana Kaimin that termed Engstrom’s silence on the matter “damning.”

It may be a while before any reason is forthcoming,” said Matt Thiel of the Thiel Law Office. Once you make a statement, he said, you own it.

“More likely, they will give you a very generic statement that will give them more room to adjust their strategy,” he said, “and buy them time to work on a buyout.”

View the original article here

Lawyer says US blocks investigation of Afghan massacre - Reuters

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

1 of 2. Attorney John Henry Browne (R), civil legal counsel to Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) based soldier Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the then-deployed U.S. Army soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians earlier this month, speaks in a press conference in his Seattle, Washington office March 30, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Anthony Bolante

By Bill Rigby

SEATTLE | Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:45pm EDT

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The lawyer defending the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians claims U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident.

John Henry Browne, the lawyer for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan have prevented his team from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to scatter, making it difficult to track them down.

"When prosecutors don't cooperate, it's because they are concerned about the strength of their case," said Browne at a press conference at his downtown Seattle office on Friday.

Bales was formally charged last week with the murders of eight adults and nine children in a pre-dawn shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on March 11, which further eroded U.S.-Afghan relations already strained by a decade of war.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

No date has been set for a trial, but U.S. military prosecutors are putting together their case while Browne is preparing his defense.

Browne said he has a team of investigators in Afghanistan now, but they are receiving little cooperation from military prosecutors who filed the charges.

"We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client," he said in a statement released earlier on Friday.

A reliable account of the events of the night of the massacre has not yet emerged. A recent report indicated Afghan villagers doubt Bales acted alone. Other reports suggest Bales left his base twice during the night.

"I don't believe that's the case, but we don't know for sure at this point," Browne said on Friday.

Browne said his investigators had spoken to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan but had not managed to contact any witnesses.

DENIED ACCESS

"When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team," Browne said in the earlier statement.

"The next day the prosecution team interviewed the civilians injured. We found out shortly after the prosecution interviews of the injured civilians that the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them." That means potential witnesses will scatter and could prove unreachable, Browne said.

Prosecutors had not shared their investigative findings with his team, and would not share images captured by a surveillance camera on a blimp above the base which the Army says shows Bales returning to the camp after the alleged shooting, he said.

The next step in the case is for Bales - who is being held at a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas - to undergo a mental assessment by Army doctors independent of both the prosecution and defense, to determine if he is fit to stand trial, known as a "sanity board" in the Army.

That could take several months, Browne said.

After that has occurred, the military justice system requires a preliminary hearing, known as an "Article 32" hearing, to establish whether there is a strong enough case to proceed to a court martial.

Browne said it was too early to say whether post-traumatic stress disorder would feature in his defense against the charges. "I don't know whether it will at all," said Browne.

"First thing we have to find out is whether the government has a case. Until we're convinced the government has a case, we're not going to start speculating on what our defenses are going to be."

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Todd Eastham and Paul Simao)

View the original article here

Lawyer says US blocks investigation of Afghan massacre

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
SEATTLE (Reuters) - The lawyer defending the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians claims U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident.

John Henry Browne, the lawyer for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan have prevented his team from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to scatter, making it difficult to track them down.

"When prosecutors don't cooperate, it's because they are concerned about the strength of their case," said Browne at a press conference at his downtown Seattle office on Friday.

Bales was formally charged last week with the murders of eight adults and nine children in a pre-dawn shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on March 11, which further eroded U.S.-Afghan relations already strained by a decade of war.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

No date has been set for a trial, but U.S. military prosecutors are putting together their case while Browne is preparing his defense.

Browne said he has a team of investigators in Afghanistan now, but they are receiving little cooperation from military prosecutors who filed the charges.

"We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client," he said in a statement released earlier on Friday.

A reliable account of the events of the night of the massacre has not yet emerged. A recent report indicated Afghan villagers doubt Bales acted alone. Other reports suggest Bales left his base twice during the night.

"I don't believe that's the case, but we don't know for sure at this point," Browne said on Friday.

Browne said his investigators had spoken to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan but had not managed to contact any witnesses.

DENIED ACCESS

"When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team," Browne said in the earlier statement.

"The next day the prosecution team interviewed the civilians i njured. We found out shortly after the prosecution interviews of the injured civilians that the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them." That means potential witnesses will scatter and could prove unreachable, Browne said.

Prosecutors had not shared their investigative findings with his team, and would not share images captured by a surveillance camera on a blimp above the base which the Army says shows Bales returning to the camp after the alleged shooting, he said.

The next step in the case is for Bales - who is being held at a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas - to undergo a mental assessment by Army doctors independent of both the prosecution and defense, to determine if he is fit to stand trial, known as a "sanity board" in the Army.

That could take several months, Browne said.

After that has occurred, the military justice system requires a preliminary hearing, known as an "Article 32" hearing, to establish whether there is a strong enough case to proceed to a court martial.

Browne said it was too early to say whether post-traumatic stress disorder would feature in his defense against the charges. "I don't know whether it will at all," said Browne.

"First thing we have to find out is whether the government has a case. Until we're convinced the government has a case, we're not going to start speculating on what our defenses are going to be."

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Todd Eastham and Paul Simao)

View the original article here

Bales' lawyer: U.S. is 'hiding evidence' in massacre - Philadelphia Inquirer

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
SEATTLE - The attorney for the U.S. soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians said Friday that the U.S. government was "hiding evidence" from the defense team.

John Henry Browne said members of the defense team in Afghanistan were told they would have access to witnesses at a hospital, but later discovered the people had been released.

He also said the U.S. government has not turned over files to the lawyers defending Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.

The defense team said in a statement the prosecution was withholding information "while potential witnesses scatter."

"It's outrageous," Browne said. "What they are basically doing is hiding evidence. The only reason to hide evidence is if you don't have evidence."

Maj. Chris Ophardt, an Army spokesman, said in a statement that the prosecution would provide Bales' defense with evidence in accordance with court-martial and military rules of evidence. He said that within these guidelines "the prosecution is and has been communicating with the defense."

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, after speaking to hundreds of Marines and sailors aboard the USS Peleliu off the coast of San Diego, told reporters: "I've made very clear that those procedures will be followed and that he'll be entitled to whatever information he would be entitled to under the military code of justice."

At a news conference Friday, Browne said the military is not under a legal obligation to provide his team with certain information at this point, but they were led to believe they'd have more assistance.

He said being given access to information at a later date would not work, especially in regards to witnesses in Afghanistan.

"Normally, we have cooperation with prosecutors and we get information, and in this case they actually promised us if we sent people to Afghanistan . . . that they would cooperate," he said.

Browne also said the military planned to conduct a comprehensive mental-health evaluation of Bales at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Browne said the military initiated the evaluation and that it would take place within the next two months.

Bales has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

View the original article here

The lawyer beside Lindsay Lohan - Los Angeles Times

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

When Lindsay Lohan showed up for court on Thursday, the crowd was not as large as it has been for the actress — anticipating perhaps a resolution, rather than the sort of dramatic turn that's made her five-year legal saga as compelling as any TV reality show.

The 25-year-old Lohan has been in and out of jail and rehab so many times, her story line seemed to arc toward failure.

She blew off therapy and community service, ticked off counselors and judges. You never knew what to expect from her in the courtroom — a tearful plea, a pout, a fingernail painted with a vulgar taunt.

But one thing never seemed to change: the steady presence of lawyer Shawn Holley, who is as movie-star pretty as her client but has the gravitas to smooth Lohan's rough edges.

I've been pulling for Lohan from the beginning. She's a talented actress whose on-screen portrayals are an angsty mix of innocence and defiance. Her movies "Mean Girls" and "Freaky Friday" are classic favorites of my daughters.

But talk about bad role-modeling. As a fan, I found Lohan's missteps disappointing. As a mother, I found her jaunts exhausting. She became a symbol of the reckless self-absorption that's become routine for some young women — and I don't just mean Hollywood starlets.

As I watched her legal troubles mount — two DUIs and a jewelry theft — I took an odd sort of comfort from Holley's presence. They seemed to me more than client and lawyer.

When Lohan was sentenced to jail in 2010, she sobbed in the courtroom on Holley's shoulder. When Lohan was handcuffed in 2011, Holley looked down as her client was led out of court, as if the lawyer could not bear to watch.

On Thursday, Holley scribbled notes on her legal pad as the judge complimented Lohan's progress. She allowed herself the slightest smile when the judge pronounced Lohan's probation "terminated."

We witnessed the hug between Lohan and Holley. We didn't get to hear Lohan's whispered "I love you."

::

A few hours after Lohan was freed, I headed off to meet her lawyer. In my 30-minute drive, I heard the story of Lohan's court hearing three times on the radio. She was wearing a "tight-fitting blue pantsuit," one announcer intoned.

She wasn't. It was more like teal, and it was tailored and tasteful — conservative, if you're 25.

It seems we can't resist a dig, even on her most triumphant morning. That reflects our investment in her bad-girl persona. And that troubles Holley.

"Lindsay's incredibly strong, but she's also very fragile," Holley said. "I can't imagine what it must be like to be her and feel how much people are kind of waiting for your downfall. That's got to be difficult, hurtful. And she doesn't deserve it."

That's the celebrity lawyer speaking — but it's also the mother of a 9-year-old daughter, an attorney who got her start as a public defender, a woman who still remembers her own youthful misadventures.

"Let's just say I had fun," said Holley, who went to UCLA from Fairfax High, spent a year teaching English at Washington Prep, then enrolled at Southwestern Law School because she didn't know what to do with her life.

She'd spent lots of time around lawyers. Her mother — who was single and 19 when Holley was born — was a legal secretary who earned her MBA in night school and spent years managing law firms.

Holley got her legal start interviewing car thieves and crack addicts. "You walk into this [courtroom] holding tank, and it's hot and it stinks and it's nasty," she said. And no one understands their legal rights. Most were ready to plead guilty, she said, even if they had a legitimate defense.

"You start seeing that you're dealing with the concept of liberty in real life."

View the original article here

Lawyer cites PTSD to defend US soldier in Afghan killings

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
The lawyer for a US soldier charged with killing 17 villagers in southern Afghanistan said Wednesday he will cite Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to defend the serviceman.

Attorney John Henry Browne added that prosecutors will have trouble proving their case against Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, whose alleged attack further strained already tense ties between Washington and Kabul.

Bales, 38, is said to have walked out of his base in the southern province of Kandahar in the early hours of March 11 and mounted a massacre in two nearby villages, with many of his victims women and children.

"When the experts are done with this case, there'll definitely be PTSD... I know a lot about PTSD and the symptoms and everything, and I'm convinced from my conversations that PTSD will be an issue," he told CNN.

The lawyer, who said he has met his client for 11 hours, downplayed reports that Bales had confessed, or even spoken about the shootings when he returned from the alleged attacks in the early hours.

"I don't know that I trust anything about him saying 'I shot people,' because I have not heard that from any source I trust," Browne told CNN in an interview.

Bales, who is being held at the Fort Leavenworth military base in Kansas, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, as well as six counts of assault and attempted murder in connection with the massacre.

Browne claimed there was a lack of evidence from the scene.

"It's not a traditional crime scene. There is no crime scene. The military has not even been back to the villages where this allegation stems from. They haven't been back there," Browne said.

"So there's no crime scene, there's no DNA, there's no fingerprints, there's no confession. It's -- you know, the Afghan people traditionally, I understand, and understandably, bury their dead very quickly.

"So it's going to be a tough case for the prosecutors," he added.

The killings have put further strain on the already difficult relationship between Kabul and Washington, after the burning of Korans by American soldiers in mid-February triggered deadly anti-US protests.

View the original article here

US soldier's lawyer slams Afghan killings 'blackout'

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
The lawyer representing a US soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers condemned what he called an "information blackout" that prevents him from preparing his defense case.

Attorney John Henry Browne on Friday said his team had been blocked from interviewing witnesses and injured civilians in southern Afghanistan following the alleged massacre earlier this month.

"We were expecting a lot more cooperation. The prosecutors in this case promised us a lot of cooperation which we're just not getting," he told reporters in Seattle.

"We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client," he added in a statement.

His client Sergeant Robert Bales, 38, is said to have walked out of his base in the southern province of Kandahar in the early hours of March 11 and mounted a massacre in two nearby villages, with many of his victims women and children.

Browne met his client earlier this month at the Fort Leavenworth military base in Kansas, where Bales is detained charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, as well as six counts of assault and attempted murder.

But his team has made little progress on the ground in Afghanistan. "When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital, we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team," it said.

The next day, prosecutors interviewed the injured civilians, but Browne's office found out shortly afterward that "the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them.

"In addition, we are being denied access to the injured civilians medical records that are in the possession of the government which makes it even more impossible for us to try to locate and interview these crucial witnesses," it said.

"The prosecution is withholding the entire investigative file from the defense team while the potential witnesses scatter into unknown and potentially inaccessible areas in Afghanistan."

Browne, who said his team had also not been shown an alleged video of Bales, conceded that under military trial rules, they do not have the right to shared "discovery" information until 30 days before a so-called Article 32 preliminary hearing.

"In this case, they actually promised us that if we sent people to Afghanistan... they would cooperate, and make witnesses available for us. And they've obviously violated that promise," he said.

He also warned that the defense -- which will have access to the results of a "sanity review" of Bales expected in the next two months and not made officially available to prosecutors -- could withhold cooperation.

"If they want cooperation from us they better start cooperating more," he told reporters.

Browne said earlier this week that post-traumatic stress disorder will almost certainly be part of his defense, adding that prosecutors will have trouble proving their case against Bales.

The killings have further strained the already difficult relationship between Kabul and Washington, at an all-time low after the burning of Korans by Americans, a spate of deadly anti-US protests and an earlier video showing US Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban militants.

US military officials declined to respond directly to Browne's allegations. But army spokesman George Wright told AFP: "The US Army will continue to work with the Bales legal defense team in the months to come."

View the original article here

Lawyer: Afghan suspect had depression after Iraq

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The U.S. soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians suffered a traumatic incident during his second tour in Iraq that triggered "tremendous depression," his lawyer said Wednesday.

Lawyer John Henry Browne said he could not discuss the details of the matter because it remains classified. But he expects the issue to become a focal point in the case against Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.

"It caused him tremendous depression and anxiety," Browne said.

The lawyer previously said Bales experienced other major dangers in his deployments, including a serious foot injury and head trauma. In addition, a fellow soldier's leg had been blown off days before the Afghanistan massacre, he said.

Bales was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and other crimes. He is being held at a U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

A defense team is now in Afghanistan to collect evidence and interview other U.S. soldiers who knew Bales.

"Everyone they've spoken to in the military has nothing but amazingly positive things to say about him," said Browne, who is not part of the team in Afghanistan.

Due to security concerns, Browne doesn't think the team will visit the villages where the killings occurred. The investigators are likely to stay in Afghanistan a few more weeks.

Browne questioned the U.S. government's case against Bales, noting there is no preserved crime scene to assess.

"It's going to be a difficult case for the prosecution to prove," Browne said. "There's no 'CSI' information. There's no DNA that I know of. There's no ballistics that I know of."

Bales has indicated that he had no recollection of prescription drugs he may have been taking before the shooting — something the attorney took as an indicator of larger memory problems.

The lawyer also said his client has a sketchy memory of the night of the shootings. In a separate interview with The Washington Post, Browne said Wednesday that Bales remembered the smell of gunfire and of human bodies but not much more.

Browne added his client reported suffering from nightmares, flashbacks of war scenes and persistent headaches after his multiple combat tours. Bales told his legal team that he has long woken up with night sweats and often replays memories of a grisly scene in Iraq that he and his infantry company witnessed several years ago, Browne said.

The lawyer stressed that Bales did not confess and seemed surprised when his weapon was taken away, the newspaper reported.

U.S. military officials said Bales was drinking on a southern Afghanistan base on March 11 before creeping away to two villages at night, shooting his victims and setting many of them on fire. Nine were children.

Bales has had incidents involving alcohol and violence in the past.

In 2002, He was arrested for a drunken assault of a security guard at a Tacoma casino. That charge was dismissed after Bales completed 20 hours of anger management training.

In 2008, a couple accused an intoxicated Bales of grabbing a woman's hand and thrusting it toward his crotch before kicking and punching the woman's boyfriend, according to a police report. Prosecutors declined to pursue that case.

___

Associated Press writer Mike Baker can be reached at http://twitter.com/MikeBakerAP

View the original article here

Lawyer: French arrests misdirected

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Mohammed Merah killed seven people in a series of attacks.NEW: Lawyer: The Forsane Alizza group wants to protect the rights of Muslims in FranceThe Islamist group's leader says it had no contact with gunman Merah, his lawyer says19 suspected members of the Forsane Alizza group were arrested Friday, authorities saidPolice have been investigating whether Merah, blamed for 7 deaths, acted alone

Paris (CNN) -- The leader of an Islamist group whose members were targeted in a series of French police raids denies any contact with Toulouse gunman Mohammed Merah, lawyer Philippe Missamou said Saturday.

The leader of the Forsane Alizza group, Mohammed Achamlane, was among 19 people arrested Friday over alleged connections to radical Islam, Missamou said.

The raids came a week after Merah, who killed seven people in a series of attacks, was shot dead after a long siege in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

French media reports suggested Merah had developed connections with the pro-al Qaeda group, which has a cluster of followers in Toulouse.

Forsane Alizza was outlawed in January for encouraging French citizens to travel to Afghanistan to fight jihad.

Missamou told CNN he had last spoken to Achamlane on Monday.

At this time, Achamlane told him that the group had not had contact with Merah, and that it had nothing to do with Merah's killings in Toulouse, Missamou said.

Achamlane said the group did not support armed combat, the attorney said.

Missamou expects to be allowed to meet with members of the group, which he has represented since January, on Monday or Tuesday.

After that they will be put before a judge and either placed under further examination with charges pending, or released, he said.

Missamou disputed the Interior Ministry's claim that all 19 people arrested are members of Forsane Alizza, saying several were not.

Friday's arrests took place in Toulouse, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and the Ile de France region, around Paris, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry's media office said "the police had plans to carry out 19 arrests, and therefore 19 arrests were made in connection with the group Forsane Alizza."

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said that several firearms, including five rifles, four automatic weapons and three Kalashnikovs, had been found in searches of the suspects' homes, as well as a bulletproof vest.

Missamou said he had no information on the claims that firearms were found.

He also said he did not know know whether members of the group have spent time in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

The lawyer disputes the characterization of the group as dangerous, saying it works to contest perceived injustice on the part of the French state.

Its members claim that France does not recognize the multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious nature of the country, and passes laws which target Muslims in France, he said.

Police have been investigating whether Merah acted alone in planning his attacks.

He is blamed for the killings of three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three Jewish children ages 4, 5 and 7. Two other people were seriously wounded in the shootings.

Merah told police he had attended an al Qaeda training camp while visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.

But his uncle, Jamal Azizi, denied statements by French authorities that Merah was an al Qaeda sympathizer and that he had traveled to Afghanistan or Pakistan to train to use arms.

Merah was buried Thursday at a cemetery outside Toulouse.

CNN's Anna Prichard contributed to this report.

updated 9:12 AM EDT, Fri March 23, 2012 Did French intelligence services miss vital clues as Mohammed Merah showed signs of growing radicalization? updated 12:11 PM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 The Toulouse shootings refocus fears on trained attackers who are determined, living legally in the West and operating alone.updated 7:38 AM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 'Lone wolves' who plot to carry out small-scale attacks on soft targets could be the future of terrorism, a security expert warns.updated 10:32 AM EDT, Fri March 23, 2012 Mohammed Merah, described as a self-styled al Qaeda jihadist, was named as the chief suspect in a series of deadly shootings.updated 12:08 PM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 CNN examines whether the handling of the crisis will have a bearing on the presidential poll.updated 6:30 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 In the pink-hued streets of Toulouse, France's "Ville Rose," flags are flying at half-mast: The city is in mourning -- and shock. updated 12:08 AM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 The city of Toulouse is at the highest security alert level, after a teacher and three children were gunned down at a Jewish school.updated 7:51 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Agnes Poirier, a political commentator, talks about the disbelief in France after the deadly drive-by shooting at a school in Toulouse.updated 6:06 AM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 Out of nowhere a gunman appeared in the courtyard of a Jewish school in the French city just as students were arriving for morning classes.Most popular stories right now

View the original article here

Bahrain lawyer: Leading activist could face trial

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A lawyer for a leading Bahrain rights activist says his client could face possible trial on charges of taking part in anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom.

Lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi says activist Nabeel Rajab was released early Sunday after hours of interrogation. Al-Jishi says the next step may be a trial for Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Rajab has been an outspoken critic of crackdowns against Bahrain's Shiite majority, which began an uprising in February 2011 seeking to end the Sunni monarchy's near monopoly on power.

A police statement Saturday said Rajab was detained on charges linked to "illegal" demonstrations and the case was referred to the public prosecutor.

View the original article here

Egypt army pardons Brotherhood presidency nominee: lawyer - Reuters India

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammad Khairat al-Shater, walks into the courtroom in Cairo, Egypt, January 30, 2007.

Credit: Reuters/Nasser Nuri/Files

By Marwa Awad

CAIRO | Sun Apr 1, 2012 10:46pm IST

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's military has dropped two court convictions against the Muslim Brotherhood's new presidential candidate Khairat al-Shater, clearing him to run in the elections to replace ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, the movement's lawyer said on Sunday.

In a policy reversal on Saturday, the Brotherhood opted to field a candidate to contest the votes in May and June and named Shater, a wealthy businessman, as its choice after deciding the other candidates were not worthy of its support.

Shater, 61, was tried in a military court in 1995 and sentenced to five years in jail on charges of "reviving" the Brotherhood. He was also tried and convicted in 2007 on charges of providing university students with arms and training.

He was jailed for seven years in the 2007 case but was freed with many other Brotherhood members in 2011 after serving four and a half years of the sentence.

Under Egyptian law, former convicts cannot occupy official posts.

"All charges and cases against engineer Khairat al-Shater have been dropped," the Brotherhood's lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsood told Reuters.

"Shater now has all the civil rights he was deprived of and can now exercise his political rights including running for an official post in the country," he said.

The military would not confirm this but one army source said the Brotherhood would not publicly name any candidate of its own without prior clearance from the ruling military council.

Abdel Maqsood said he had picked up presidential application papers on Shater's behalf from the electoral committee.

Mubarak's overthrow in February last year ended the Brotherhood's official exclusion from politics. Before that, its leaders were often rounded up by state security in what human rights groups said was a deliberate policy to curb their political reach.

The Brotherhood did not begin the protests that toppled Mubarak but has been their most obvious beneficiary, capitalising on a formidable grass-roots campaign machine to secure top spot in a recent parliamentary vote.

That puts Shater among the frontrunners in a race billed as Egypt's first free and fair election in six decades, even though others have months of unofficial canvassing under their belts.

Analysts said the decision to field a presidential candidate suggested the Brotherhood, now on the brink of power for the first time in its 84-year history, was worried it could have its newfound influence snatched away.

Shater's candidacy is likely to split the Islamist vote in the elections further. There are three other Islamist candidates running.

But liberals may still fret over Shater's bid as it signals the rising influence of Islamists after they swept parliament and now dominate an assembly writing a new constitution.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday while visiting Istanbul that the United States will be watching Egypt's political process, urging political actors not to discriminate against minorities.

Many Coptic Christians, who represent around 10 percent of Egypt's population of over 80 million, have voiced concern over the rise of groups pledged to a stricter application of Islamic Sharia law.

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and David Stamp)

View the original article here

Lawyer: Islamic group not linked to gunman

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Published: March. 31, 2012 at 6:50 PM

PARIS, March 31 (UPI) -- The lawyer for the leader of an Islamic group arrested by French authorities said the group has no connection with the Toulouse gunman who killed seven people.

Lawyer Philippe Missamou, who represents Forsane Alizza leader Mohammed Achamlane, one of 19 people arrested Friday for alleged links to radical Islam, said Saturday Achamlane denied the group had anything to do with Mohammed Merah's killings, CNN reported.

Merah killed a rabbi, the cleric's two children and another schoolgirl outside a Jewish school last week and three paratroopers of north African descent the week before.

Merah allegedly admitted to the shootings during a two-day standoff with police at his apartment in Toulouse before he was killed in an exchange of gunfire.

CNN said French media reports have suggested Merah had links to Forsane Alizza, which has followers in Toulouse.

France's Interior Ministry said "19 arrests were made in connection with the group Forsane Alizza" Friday in Toulouse, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and the Ile de France region, around Paris.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said five rifles, four automatic weapons, three Kalashnikov rifles and a bulletproof vest were found in searches of the suspects' homes.

Missamou said Achamlane said Forsane Alizza did not support armed combat. The lawyer said the group was not dangerous but worked to battle injustice against Muslims in France.

View the original article here

Lawyer Says Zuccotti Park Demonstrators Broke No Law - New York Times (blog)

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Robert Stolarik for The New York TimesPolice officers in Zuccotti Park, on Nov. 15, 2011 where they removed tents and arrested Occupy Wall Street protesters.

When hundreds of police officers entered Zuccotti Park early on Nov. 15, they dismantled tents and other structures that had been erected by Occupy Wall Street protesters in defiance of rules established in September by the park’s owner, Brookfield Properties.

The police also arrested dozens of protesters who refused to leave the park, charging them with offenses that included trespassing and disorderly conduct, as officers set up metal barricades around the park’s perimeter.

On Friday, a defense lawyer argued in Criminal Court in Manhattan that such charges filed against two of his clients should be dismissed.

While it might be appropriate for Brookfield to establish rules governing behavior in the park, the lawyer said, the company could not order people out of the park, because an agreement with the city required it to be open to the public 24 hours a day.

“Brookfield lacked the authority to exclude people,” the lawyer, Jethro M. Eisenstein, argued in support of a motion to dismiss the charges, contending that it was “unseemly and unjust to allow Brookfield to harness the power of the state” to clear the park of protesters.

But an assistant district attorney told Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. that the company was within its rights to revoke permission for protesters to be in the park while the police and sanitation workers removed banned structures.

“They have to have the ability to enforce rules,” the prosecutor, Ryan Hayward, said. “They did deem it necessary to close that park.”

Judge Sciarrino asked both sides to clarify certain points. He asked Mr. Eisenstein if he thought the rules allowed people to use Zuccotti Park for any purpose. Later, he told Mr. Hayward that experience had taught him that sometimes, “the law is not simply what the city says it is.”

At the heart of the arguments is the issue of what authority and responsibilities Brookfield has in managing Zuccotti Park, a half-acre granite expanse in the financial district that the Occupy protesters turned into a headquarters in mid-September. The park was created under an agreement that allowed developers of a skyscraper across Liberty Street to build 500,000 extra square feet of office space.

In return, the developers created a public space that would be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

According to papers filed by Mr. Eisenstein and the New York Civil Liberties Union, Brookfield can limit public access to the park only after going through a process that involves gaining the approval of the City Planning Commission.

The district attorney’s office, along with the city’s Law Department, disagreed, writing that “Brookfield Properties was faced with a situation where the volume of tenting, structures, sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, trash and other personal property had created a safety condition,” and that the only effective remedy involved clearing people from the park.

At one point, Judge Sciarrino asked Mr. Hayward if he agreed that there was a distinction between rules of conduct and rules of access. Mr. Hayward replied that he did and that in order “to ensure compliance with rules of conduct that temporary closure needed to be effectuated.”

Mr. Eisenstein countered that the closure could not accurately be termed temporary because metal barricades surrounded the park for nearly two months after Nov. 15, and that people entering during that time were subject to searches by private security guards.

Judge Sciarrino did not rule immediately on the motion.

View the original article here

Rodman's Lawyer: He's No 'Deadbeat'

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Dennis Rodman's lawyer said Wednesday that the retired NBA player is not a "deadbeat dad," following court papers filed Tuesday that claimed Rodman owes more than $800,000 in child support.

"The way that it's being painted makes it sound like he's in horrible shape," Rodman's lawyer, Linnea Willis, told ABCNews.com. "This makes him sound like he's a deadbeat dead. The bottom line here is that Dennis Rodman has always paid child support to the best of his ability and will continue to do so."

On Tuesday, a lawyer for Rodman's ex-wife, Michelle Rodman, filed papers in a Los Angeles court claiming Rodman owed more than $800,000 in back child support for the couple's 9- and 10-year-old children as of March 1st. He was previously ordered to pay his ex-wife $50,000 per month for child support. In response, Willis filed a motion to counter the $50,000 per month order.

She said that order was issued in 2010 "without consideration of Dennis' actual income, but rather was based on an exaggerated income amount made up by his ex-wife's attorneys." She also said that Rodman was not properly served legal papers.

Rodman's manager, Darren Prince, said Rodman has been paying "at least $4,000 or $5,000" to his ex-wife each month. Willis said the court "didn't have evidence about all the payments that were made."

"The only thing that was at issue was for certain months that her attorney brought up, he did pay something but it wasn't enough," Willis said.

A sentencing hearing for Rodman has been set for May 29. While his ex-wife's attorney said Rodman faces jail time for his inability to pay child and spousal support, Willis said the judge "made it very clear he's not going to give him jail time."

Michelle Rodman's lawyer, Jack Kayajanian, did not respond to ABCNews.com's requests for comment.

Willis also clarified Rodman's condition. Tuesday's court papers described the former Chicago Bulls rebound star as "extremely sick."

"The way that it's being painted makes it sound like he's in horrible shape, he's not," she said. "He plays, he plays in China, he makes appearances."

On Tuesday, Prince, Rodman's manager, told ABCNews.com that Rodman has been sidelined by his "well-documented drinking problem." Willis insisted that despite his setbacks, Rodman remains on good terms with his ex-wife and children.

"Whenever he sees the kids and whenever they're here, they talk," she said. "He loves her still. On their end, it's not contentious."

Dennis Rodman and Michelle Rodman married in 2003 after dating for four years. Michelle Rodman filed for divorce in 2004, but their marriage was not officially dissolved until earlier this year because of attempts at reconciliation.

View the original article here

Lawyer says U.S. blocks investigation of Afghan massacre

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
SEATTLE (Reuters) - The lawyer defending the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians claims U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident.

John Henry Browne, the lawyer for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan have prevented his team from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to scatter, making it difficult to track them down.

"When prosecutors don't cooperate, it's because they are concerned about the strength of their case," said Browne at a press conference at his downtown Seattle office on Friday.

Bales was formally charged last week with the murders of eight adults and nine children in a pre-dawn shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on March 11, which further eroded U.S.-Afghan relations already strained by a decade of war.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

No date has been set for a trial, but U.S. military prosecutors are putting together their case while Browne is preparing his defense.

Browne said he has a team of investigators in Afghanistan now, but they are receiving little cooperation from military prosecutors who filed the charges.

"We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client," he said in a statement released earlier on Friday.

A reliable account of the events of the night of the massacre has not yet emerged. A recent report indicated Afghan villagers doubt Bales acted alone. Other reports suggest Bales left his base twice during the night.

"I don't believe that's the case, but we don't know for sure at this point," Browne said on Friday.

Browne said his investigators had spoken to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan but had not managed to contact any witnesses.

DENIED ACCESS

"When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team," Browne said in the earlier statement.

"The next day the prosecution team interviewed the civilians i njured. We found out shortly after the prosecution interviews of the injured civilians that the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them." That means potential witnesses will scatter and could prove unreachable, Browne said.

Prosecutors had not shared their investigative findings with his team, and would not share images captured by a surveillance camera on a blimp above the base which the Army says shows Bales returning to the camp after the alleged shooting, he said.

The next step in the case is for Bales - who is being held at a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas - to undergo a mental assessment by Army doctors independent of both the prosecution and defense, to determine if he is fit to stand trial, known as a "sanity board" in the Army.

That could take several months, Browne said.

After that has occurred, the military justice system requires a preliminary hearing, known as an "Article 32" hearing, to establish whether there is a strong enough case to proceed to a court martial.

Browne said it was too early to say whether post-traumatic stress disorder would feature in his defense against the charges. "I don't know whether it will at all," said Browne.

"First thing we have to find out is whether the government has a case. Until we're convinced the government has a case, we're not going to start speculating on what our defenses are going to be."

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Todd Eastham and Paul Simao)

View the original article here

Lawyer: French Islamist group had no link with Toulouse gunman - CNN

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Mohammed Merah killed seven people in a series of attacks.NEW: Lawyer: The Forsane Alizza group wants to protect the rights of Muslims in FranceThe Islamist group's leader says it had no contact with gunman Merah, his lawyer says19 suspected members of the Forsane Alizza group were arrested Friday, authorities saidPolice have been investigating whether Merah, blamed for 7 deaths, acted alone

Paris (CNN) -- The leader of an Islamist group whose members were targeted in a series of French police raids denies any contact with Toulouse gunman Mohammed Merah, lawyer Philippe Missamou said Saturday.

The leader of the Forsane Alizza group, Mohammed Achamlane, was among 19 people arrested Friday over alleged connections to radical Islam, Missamou said.

The raids came a week after Merah, who killed seven people in a series of attacks, was shot dead after a long siege in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

French media reports suggested Merah had developed connections with the pro-al Qaeda group, which has a cluster of followers in Toulouse.

Forsane Alizza was outlawed in January for encouraging French citizens to travel to Afghanistan to fight jihad.

Missamou told CNN he had last spoken to Achamlane on Monday.

At this time, Achamlane told him that the group had not had contact with Merah, and that it had nothing to do with Merah's killings in Toulouse, Missamou said.

Achamlane said the group did not support armed combat, the attorney said.

Missamou expects to be allowed to meet with members of the group, which he has represented since January, on Monday or Tuesday.

After that they will be put before a judge and either placed under further examination with charges pending, or released, he said.

Missamou disputed the Interior Ministry's claim that all 19 people arrested are members of Forsane Alizza, saying several were not.

Friday's arrests took place in Toulouse, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and the Ile de France region, around Paris, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry's media office said "the police had plans to carry out 19 arrests, and therefore 19 arrests were made in connection with the group Forsane Alizza."

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said that several firearms, including five rifles, four automatic weapons and three Kalashnikovs, had been found in searches of the suspects' homes, as well as a bulletproof vest.

Missamou said he had no information on the claims that firearms were found.

He also said he did not know know whether members of the group have spent time in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

The lawyer disputes the characterization of the group as dangerous, saying it works to contest perceived injustice on the part of the French state.

Its members claim that France does not recognize the multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious nature of the country, and passes laws which target Muslims in France, he said.

Police have been investigating whether Merah acted alone in planning his attacks.

He is blamed for the killings of three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three Jewish children ages 4, 5 and 7. Two other people were seriously wounded in the shootings.

Merah told police he had attended an al Qaeda training camp while visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.

But his uncle, Jamal Azizi, denied statements by French authorities that Merah was an al Qaeda sympathizer and that he had traveled to Afghanistan or Pakistan to train to use arms.

Merah was buried Thursday at a cemetery outside Toulouse.

CNN's Anna Prichard contributed to this report.

updated 9:12 AM EDT, Fri March 23, 2012 Did French intelligence services miss vital clues as Mohammed Merah showed signs of growing radicalization? updated 12:11 PM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 The Toulouse shootings refocus fears on trained attackers who are determined, living legally in the West and operating alone.updated 7:38 AM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 'Lone wolves' who plot to carry out small-scale attacks on soft targets could be the future of terrorism, a security expert warns.updated 10:32 AM EDT, Fri March 23, 2012 Mohammed Merah, described as a self-styled al Qaeda jihadist, was named as the chief suspect in a series of deadly shootings.updated 12:08 PM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 CNN examines whether the handling of the crisis will have a bearing on the presidential poll.updated 6:30 PM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 In the pink-hued streets of Toulouse, France's "Ville Rose," flags are flying at half-mast: The city is in mourning -- and shock. updated 12:08 AM EDT, Tue March 20, 2012 The city of Toulouse is at the highest security alert level, after a teacher and three children were gunned down at a Jewish school.updated 7:51 PM EDT, Mon March 19, 2012 Agnes Poirier, a political commentator, talks about the disbelief in France after the deadly drive-by shooting at a school in Toulouse.updated 6:06 AM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012 Out of nowhere a gunman appeared in the courtyard of a Jewish school in the French city just as students were arriving for morning classes.Most popular stories right now

View the original article here