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.

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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: 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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Lawyer: Afghan suspect had depression after Iraq

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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.

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

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Counsel: Afghanistan Suspect was reluctant to deploy

THE U.S. soldier accused of Afghan villagers slaughter 16 last weekend saw the legs of his friend away on the eve of the rampage, his lawyer said Thursday.

Attorney of Seattle John Henry Browne told the Associated Press that family of his client provides the details of the injury of another U.S. soldier. The details have not been verified independently.

"His leg was won, and my client was standing next to him," said.

Browne, said that the incident has affected all the soldiers at the base. It is not clear whether the incident would have could help prompt the horrific middle-of-the-night attack on civilians in two villages Sunday.

The suspect had been wounded twice in his three previous deployments to the Iraq, and he was not prepared to go to the Afghanistan, said Browne.

Browne declined to release the name of his client, citing concerns for the family of the man, who is under the protection of Joint Base of Lewis-McChord near Tacoma. But he said that the soldier had two young children, aged 3 and 4.

The 38-year-old soldier father of two who is originally from the Midwest, deployed last December with the 3rd Brigade of Stryker and February 1 has been attached to a "stability village operation." Browne described as highly decorated and said once, he had been appointed to a Bronze Star, which he has not received.

FILE - photo file 16 December 2011, the Attorney John Henry Browne, representative of Colton Harris-Moore, who is also known as the "barefoot Bandit", appears in the island of County Court superior to Coupeville, Wash. Browne, said Thursday, March 15, 2012 and that he is asked to represent the American soldier accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Ted s. Warren, file) Close

But he said that the soldier and his family thought he was fighting. At tours in Iraq, the soldier suffered head trauma concussion in a car accident caused by a bomb, Browne said, and he suffered an injury in the battle which resulted in surgery to remove part of his foot.

It was screened by health officials after the prior head injury he redeployed, said Browne. He did not know whether his client had been achieved of post traumatic stress disorder, but said that it could be in the trial, if the experts believe that it is relevant.

He and the rest of his brigade had initially said that they would not have to go to Afghanistan, said Browne.

Browne and his co-counsel, Emma Scanlan, said they had met with the wife of soldier and other members of the family and Browne said that he spoke briefly by telephone with the soldier, that he described as stunned and distant.

His family was "completely surprised", he said. "He has never said anything antagonists on Muslims." It is usually very light-maniéré. ?

Browne said that he knew little of the facts of the shooting, but dispute reports that a combination of alcohol, stress and domestic problems caused him to snap. He said that the family said that they were not aware of any problem with alcohol and describes the marriage of the couple as "fabulous".

The soldier is accused of going on a shooting rampage in the villages near his base in the South of the Afghanistan in the early Sunday, killing nine children and seven other civil and then burn some of their organs. The shooting, which was followed by an incident controversial to the Qur'an involving us troops, has outraged the Afghan officials.

The suspect flew out the Afghanistan, Wednesday night, in what officials describe as a provisional containment at the Kuwait facility. Officials anonymously described as a father of two children who was in the army for 11 years. He served three tours in Iraq and started its first deployment to Afghanistan in December.

The soldier requested to be represented by Browne, a well known Seattle defence counsel, when he was placed in detention, said the lawyer.

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Lawyer to visit Afghan Murder Suspect

With the imminent formal charges against his client in the days, counsel for a sergeant in the army suspected the horrible night massacre of 16 Afghan villagers flew in Kansas and was preparing for his first meeting in the face to face with the veteran of 10 years.

John Henry Browne of Seattle said he planned to meet Monday Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is detained in a cell isolated in Fort Leavenworth military prison.

Balls, 38 years old, has not been charged in the shooting on March 11, has been infringed in relations between the United States and the Afghanistan, who threatens to return the policy of the United States in the war of ten years. But the formal charges are expected to be filed in a week and if the case is brought to trial will be held in the United States, said a legal expert with the U.S. military familiar to the investigation.

That fresh said experts were still to be decided and that the location of any trial had not yet been determined. If the suspect is presented at trial, it is possible that the victims and the Afghan witnesses would be raised to the United States to participate, he said.

Military lawyers say once prosecutors involved in the initial investigation of an alleged crime involving a member of the service have what they think to be a solid understanding of what has happened and are satisfied with the evidence collected, they loads project and present it to a commander. This person then makes a judgment on if there is probable cause to believe that an offence has been committed and that the accused committed it.

The Commander then "prefer" the charges to the convening authority, which generally is the Commander of the brigade to which the accused is assigned, but may be of a higher rank.

Bullets team said in a statement late Saturday that "" it is too early to determine what factors have played in this incident and the defence team is pleased to review of the evidence, examine all the medical records and staff sergeant balls and question witnesses. ""

Statement of the lawyers' said also family of the bullets was "surprised by this tragedy, but they stand behind the man they know as a devoted husband, father and the dedicated Army Member.".

Military authorities reported that balls, after drinking on a base in the South of the Afghanistan, slipped away March 11 to two villages fell asleep during the night, shooting his victims and many of them fire. Nine of the 16 killed were children and 11 belonged to a family.

Records and interviews in recent days showed that the bullets were a string of commendations for good behaviour after four towers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he has also faced a number of difficulties in recent years: a work of investment of Florida a sour, at his home in the Seattle area was sentenced as he is struggling to make payments on another, and it does not have to obtain a recent promotion.

Legal issues included them charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a tube - and run accident, hemorrhage in military clothing in the Woods, court records show. He said police, he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed, the records show.

Rebecca Steed, spokesman at Fort Leavenworth, said that bullets would be able to meet Browne in what is described as a privileged visit. With medical visits, these meetings are generally more private than other activities in the prison.

Browne, 65, has represented clients ranging from serial killer Ted Bundy of Colton Harris - Moore, known as the "barefoot Bandit". He said that he managed military affairs only three or four. Bullets will have at least a military lawyer.

Large and elegant, Browne was an important figure in the State of Washington legal community since the 1970s, known also for his zeal in the representation of his clients and his flair for the television cameras.

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Writers of the Associated Press Manuel Valdes in Seattle, John Milburn in Topeka, Kan and Deb Riechmann in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed equally.

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