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Canadian court: US can extradite terror suspect
Court News |
2014/08/13 14:37
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An appeals court ruled Monday an Iraqi-born man should be extradited to the United States to face charges that he helped coordinate Tunisian jihadists believed responsible for a suicide attack in Iraq in 2009 that killed five American soldiers outside a U.S. base.
Sayfildin Tahir Sharif, who holds dual Canadian-Iraqi citizenship, was arrested in 2011 on a U.S. warrant and has been fighting extradition to New York.
The prosecution alleges Sharif worked from Edmonton, Alberta, to help a Tunisian man enter Iraq in 2009 and detonate a truck filled with explosives at a military checkpoint, killing five U.S. soldiers. Prosecutors contend that evidence from intercepted Internet and phone conversations shows that Sharif was directly involved in supporting Tunisian terrorists. Sharif never left Canada as part of the alleged conspiracy.
The terror network is also accused of blowing up an Iraqi police station, killing seven Iraqi officers.
Canada's justice minister granted extradition last summer after receiving assurances from the U.S. that Sharif wouldn't face the death penalty. Defense lawyers also received a letter from U.S. authorities promising the man wouldn't be held indefinitely in pre-trial detention.
Sharif was appealing the justice minister's decision as well as a judge's original ruling in 2012 that there was enough evidence to extradite Sharif on two charges.
Sharif is an ethnic Kurd who was born in Iraq but moved to Toronto as a refugee in 1993. Four years later, he became a Canadian citizen. |
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Appellate court overturns high-speed rail rulings
Attorney News |
2014/08/05 15:53
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A state appellate court on Thursday overturned two lower court rulings that had stalled funding for California's $68 billion bullet train, handing a big win to Gov. Jerry Brown's signature project and allowing the state to resume selling bonds to pay for it.
The court overturned rulings by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny last year in which he said the high-speed rail project no longer complies with the promises made to voters in 2008 when they approved selling nearly $10 billion in bonds. In siding with Kings County and Central Valley landowners, Kenny invalidated the sale of $8.6 billion in state bonds and ordered the California High-Speed Rail Authority to write a new funding plan.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs had argued that the state failed to identify all the funding for the first full segment of the rail line in the Central Valley, a cost of about $26 billion, and instead had found just $6 billion to pay for construction. They also argued the state did not have all the necessary environmental clearances as voters were promised. |
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Italy court reopens probe into death of Pantani
Court Watch |
2014/08/05 15:52
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Italian prosecutors have reopened an investigation into the death of cyclist Marco Pantani after his family presented evidence contending the former Tour de France winner was murdered.
Pantani, who won both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in 1998, was found dead in a Rimini hotel room on Feb. 14, 2004. A coroner ruled the 34-year-old Italian died from a cocaine overdose.
The cyclist's mother, Tonina Pantani, has always claimed her son was murdered, alleging that he was forced to drink a lethal dose of cocaine dissolved in liquid.
"It's an important day, but with a bittersweet taste," Tonina said. "On one side I'm glad, after many years, finally I'm not shouting into the wind anymore. But inside me there's also anger, anger and more anger.
"Why did it take all this time? Why were several things not in their place in 2004 and nobody did anything to give me answers? I'm tired."
Rimini's chief prosecutor, Paolo Giovagnoli, confirmed Pantani's file has been reopened but said it is an "obligatory move" in such matters. He has handed the case to a colleague, Elisa Milocco, who will study the dossier of evidence presented by Pantani's family before returning from holiday in September. |
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Brown appoints legal affairs aide to appeals court
Press Release |
2014/07/29 13:44
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Gov. Jerry Brown has named a senior aide to become an associate justice on the Sacramento-based Third District Court of Appeal.
Brown announced the appointment of Jonathan Renner on Friday.
The 44-year-old Democrat from Sacramento has been Brown's legal affairs secretary since 2011.
He was senior assistant attorney general at the California Department of Justice from 2009 to 2010, when Brown was the state's attorney general. Renner previously held other high-ranking positions within the attorney general's office.
The appointment requires confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. It includes the current attorney general, Kamala Harris, and Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye ("TAWNY canTILL SOCK-a-OO-ay").
If confirmed, Renner will begin his term Jan. 5. He would fill the vacancy created when Cantil-Sakauye moved to the California Supreme Court. |
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Federal court: Virginia marriage is for all
Court News |
2014/07/29 13:43
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An appeals courts' decision to strike down Virginia's same-sex marriage ban adds to the growing list of decrees on a hot-button issue that will likely end up being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, is the second federal appellate court to overturn gay marriage bans, after the Denver circuit, and is the first to affect the South, a region where the rising tide of rulings favoring marriage equality is testing concepts of states' rights and traditional, conservative moral values that have long held sway.
"I am proud that the Commonwealth of Virginia is leading on one of the most important civil rights issues of our day," said Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who had refused to defend the state ban when he took office in January. "We are fighting for the right of loving, committed couples to enter the bonds of marriage."
Virginians voted 57 percent to 43 percent in 2006 to amend their constitution to ban gay marriage and state law prohibits recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states, which the court said infringes on its citizens' fundamental right to marry. |
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