Van der Sloot pleads guilty to killing Peru woman

LIMA, Peru (AP) — After Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty Wednesday to the 2010 murder of a Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino, his lawyer argued that the killing was tragically triggered by fallout from the very event that originally brought his client notoriety.

The "persecution" suffered by Van der Sloot after the unsolved disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway five years earlier scarred him psychologically with a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder, defense attorney Jose Jimenez told the three female judges who are to sentence his client Friday.

The young Dutchman has been the prime suspect in the Holloway case since she disappeared on Aruba five years to the day before the killing of the 21-year-old Peruvian woman, business student Stephany Flores.

With the evidence against him in the Peru killing strong, Van der Sloot entered a guilty plea Wednesday at his lawyer's urging, hoping for a reduced sentence.

"I truly am sorry for this act. I feel very bad," the 24-year-old defendant said, showing no emotion in a brief admission of guilt in fractured Spanish. He did not use the Dutch translator provided for the proceeding.

Prosecutors are asking for a 30-year prison sentence under charges that carry a 15-year minimum.

Van der Sloot, physically imposing at well over six feet tall, bowed his head minutes later as his lawyer argued that he killed Flores in a "severe emotional reaction to extreme psychological trauma" related to the Holloway disappearance, "something he says he never did and for which no evidence at all exists."

Van der Sloot did not exhibit signs of remorse, and he briefly smiled while conferring with Jimenez before leaving the courtroom.

The judges have 48 hours to render a sentence and the presiding magistrate, Victoria Montoya, said the panel would reconvene Friday to do so.

Van der Sloot's trial opened last week but was adjourned until Wednesday after he asked for more time to decide how to plead. He said then that he did not accept the aggravated murder charges the prosecution sought.

Van der Sloot, who wore faded jeans and an untucked light-blue button-down shirt, had confessed to the May 30, 2010, killing long ago.

He told police shortly after the murder that he killed Flores in a fit of rage after she discovered his connection to the disappearance of Holloway on his laptop while they played poker online.

The defense says it was manslaughter, for which the minimum sentence is 5 years.

Police forensic experts disputed that claim and a lawyer for the victim's prominent family contends Van der Sloot killed Flores in order to rob her.

Prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder and theft.

The prosecution maintained Van der Sloot killed Flores with "ferocity" and "cruelty," concealing the crime and fleeing to Chile, where he was caught two days after Flores' rotting body was found.

He took more than $200 in cash plus credit cards from the victim and made his initial getaway in her car, leaving it in a different part of Lima, prosecutors say.

"Van der Sloot is far too cold and calculating," Peru's chief homicide detective at the time, Miguel Canlla, told The Associated Press shortly after the killing.

The coroner's report said the killer elbowed Flores in the face, thrusting her against a wall and drawing blood.

"She begins to defend herself and he starts beating her and then grabs her by the neck and strangles her," Canlla said. "He takes off his shirt and then asphyxiates her (with it)."

The length of the Van der Sloot's sentence is at the judges' discretion, said court officials and a leading Peruvian criminal attorney, Luis Lamas.

In Peru, convicts can become eligible for parole after serving half their sentences if they work or study.

The attorney for the family of the victim, Edwar Alvarez, has argued for life in prison and deemed a sentence reduction unacceptable.

"In the court record, this man has submitted to psychological examinations and they have concluded that he is a psychopathic person," he told reporters. "What judge would give a psychopath a penal benefit?"

The victim's father, circus impresario and former race car driver Ricardo Flores, attended the opening of the trial but not Wednesday's hearing.

Reached by phone before Van der Sloot's plea, he said he could not bear to even watch the proceedings on TV.

"This matter hurts us," he told The Associated Press.

Ricardo Flores told the AP on Friday that the family, as a party to the trial, had planned to introduce testimony from friends of his daughter and casino employees proving that she won $10,000 there and that Van der Sloot had learned of it. He said the casino had videotape of his daughter cashing in the chips.

Video taken at the Atlantic City Casino, where the victim met Van der Sloot, shows the two leaving together, and closed-circuit images from the downmarket TAC Hotel shows the pair entering his room together and Van der Sloot leaving alone hours later, bags packed.

To hide the crime after killing Flores, Van der Sloot left the hotel, bought two cups of coffee, and asked a hotel employee to open his room when he returned, prosecutor Jose Santiesteban said in the trial's opening argument.

Van der Sloot continues to be dogged by the case of Holloway, a 19-year-old from Mountain Brook, Alabama, disappeared during a high school graduation trip in 2005 to the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, where Van der Sloot grew up.

She was last seen leaving a nightclub with him. Her body has never been found.

The case received a storm of media attention and the tall, garrulous Dutchman became a staple of true-crime TV shows. In several interviews, he described himself as a pathological liar, and in one clandestinely taped conversation he told a Dutch TV reporter he was involved in Holloway's disappearance.

Van der Sloot's trip to Lima may have been funded by continued fallout from that case.

U.S. officials, who indicted him on extortion and fraud charges days after the Flores killing, say Van der Sloot had extorted $25,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, by offering to lead her attorney, John Q. Kelly, to Holloway's body in Aruba.

After meeting with Kelly there, without delivering on his offer, Van der Sloot flew to Lima on May 14, 2010, they say. Two weeks later, Flores was killed.

Ricardo Flores said he doesn't believe Van der Sloot is contrite over his daughter's death and wants the defendant to experience greater deprivation.

That could include being extradited to the United States to stand trial there once he's been sentenced in Peru.

In a statement Wednesday, Kelly said that after Van der Sloot is sentenced "we anticipate that U.S. authorities will move quickly to bring him to Alabama to face pending federal charges, and to answer for his past conduct in Aruba."

Peru's Foreign Ministry says it has no U.S. extradition request for Van der Sloot.

U.S. authorities have requested his arrest through Interpol "should he be released on the charges there" so he could be brought to Alabama, for trial, said Peggy Sanford, a spokeswoman the U.S. Attorney's office in Birmingham, Alabama.

No members of Van der Sloot's family have attended the trial.

His lawyer said his client's mother, Anita, did not want the media attention. The defendant's father, a prominent lawyer, died of a heart attack at age 57 in February 2010.

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Associated Press writers Carla Salazar, Martin Villena and Franklin Briceno contributed to this report.

Continue Reading... Labels: guilty, killing, pleads, Sloot, Woman

Anwar found not guilty of sodomy

8 January 2012 Last updated at 22:30 ET

Anwar Ibrahim said justice had been served by the court in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been acquitted of sodomy after a two-year trial.

Judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah said DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution was unreliable and discharged the case.

Mr Anwar, 64, has consistently denied the charges and called them a government bid to cripple his political ambitions and influence.

The government said the verdict showed Malaysia's judiciary was free from government influence.

Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia but, says the BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur, very few people are ever prosecuted.

'Justice has prevailed'

Mr Anwar had been accused of having sex with a former male aide. He had faced up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

But the judge said that there were questions over whether DNA evidence had been contaminated.

"The court is always reluctant to convict on sexual offences without corroborative evidence. Therefore, the accused is acquitted and discharged," the judge said.

The verdict was greeted with cheers from Mr Anwar's supporters, wife and daughters, our correspondent says.

Mr Anwar told journalists outside the courtroom: "Thank God justice has prevailed I have been vindicated.

"To be honest, I am a little surprised."

Information Minister Rais Yatim said that the verdict showed that judges were free to rule as they saw fit.

"Malaysia has an independent judiciary," he said. "The current wave of bold democratic reforms introduced by Prime Minister Najib Razak will help extend this transparency to all areas of Malaysian life."

The allegations against Mr Anwar surfaced just months after elections in 2008, in which he led the opposition to unprecedented gains at the expense of the ruling party.

This verdict comes ahead of elections due in 2013 but widely expected to be called later this year.

Hundreds of police and security personnel were on the streets of Kuala Lumpur ahead of the verdict, and thousands of Mr Anwar's supporters waited outside the court.

Mr Anwar was once Malaysia's deputy prime minister and an ally of former leader Mahathir Mohammad.

But he fell out with Mr Mahathir and was later jailed for corruption and sodomy. The sodomy conviction was later overturned and he was freed in 2004 after spending six years in prison.

He is now seen as the key figure in Malaysia's opposition coalition, which currently controls about a third of the seats in parliament.

In a tweet from his account minutes after the verdict, Mr Anwar looked ahead to the polls.

"In the coming election, voice of the people will be heard and this corrupt government will be toppled from its pedestals of power," the message read.

Continue Reading... Labels: Anwar, found, guilty, sodomy

Pair guilty of Lawrence murder

3 January 2012 Last updated at 11:46 ET

 

Doreen Lawrence: "How can I celebrate when my son lies buried?"

Two men have been convicted of the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, 18 years after he was stabbed to death near a south London bus stop.

Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty by an Old Bailey jury after a trial based on forensic evidence.

Scientists found a tiny bloodstain on Dobson's jacket that could only have come from Mr Lawrence.

They also found a single hair belonging to the teenager on Norris's jeans. Sentencing will be on Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Panorama, Stephen's mother Doreen Lawrence said: "I don't forgive the boys who killed Stephen. They don't think they have done anything wrong.

"They took away Stephen's life and there is nothing in their behaviour or anything to show they regret what their actions have done and the pain it has caused us as a family."

Gary Dobson and David Norris: Denied murder

In a statement read by his lawyer outside the Old Bailey, Stephen's father, Neville Lawrence, said the convictions were a moment of joy and relief - but he could not rest until all of those who killed his son were brought to justice. He described the investigation and preparation of the case as "faultless".

Duwayne Brooks, Stephen's best friend who had been with him on the night of the murder, tweeted: "Some justice at last".

'Prime suspects'

The original failed investigation into the murder led to the Metropolitan Police being branded as institutionally racist.

Stephen Lawrence was 18 when he was stabbed to death near a bus stop in Eltham, south London, in April 1993.

Police identified five men who were later named in a damning public inquiry as the "prime suspects".

By that time, there had already been a catalogue of police errors and two failed prosecutions, one brought by Stephen's parents.

But in a four-year-long cold case review, a fresh team of forensic scientists uncovered microscopic evidence linking two of the five men to the murder - evidence that the police had held all along.

The material - bloodstains, clothing fibres and a single hair belonging to the teenager - were recovered from the clothes of the suspects which had been seized in 1993.

Scientists recovered the material using advanced techniques which were not available to the original case scientists.

Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, denied the murder. They said their clothing had been contaminated as police mixed up evidence over the years. Detectives spent months establishing the movements and handling of the exhibits since 1993 - and the jury were told that contamination was implausible.

Dobson was jailed for five years in 2010 for drugs trafficking. He is among a small number of men to have been tried twice for the same crime after the Court of Appeal quashed his 1996 acquittal for the murder.

Norris was convicted in 2002 of a separate allegation of racially threatening behaviour.

In mitigation, ahead of sentencing on Wednesday, counsel for Dobson said there was no evidence he had been the leader or prime motivator of the group that attacked the teenager.

Panorama follows Stephen Lawrence's mother, Doreen, as she returns to her son's grave in Jamaica

Norris's counsel repeated his client's pleas of innocence - and revealed his client had been beaten up while on remand at Belmarsh prison, suffering a broken nose and four broken ribs.

Mr Justice Treacy discharged the jury and thanked them for their "dedicated service". He told them the public owed them a debt of gratitude.

As the defendants left the dock, Dobson told his family not to worry, and Norris waved to the gallery. Members of both men's families shouted back.

'Unique case'

Acting Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who ordered the 2006 cold case review that led to the convictions, said the case had been extremely important for the Lawrence family, the Metropolitan Police and society at large.

She said: "It's a matter of huge regret to the Met that it has taken 18 years to get to this point.

"It has been a unique case in policing. Firstly the horrible, horrible nature of the attack on the night, the time in which it has taken to bring anybody to justice, and the tireless campaigning of the Lawrences.

"There is no comparable case. All homicide cases are terrible, but for us it is a very important case.

"Most importantly, we wanted to be able to bring people to justice for the killing and try to give Doreen and Neville Lawrence and their family some sense of justice."

Continue Reading... Labels: guilty, Lawrence, Murder

Maine man guilty of arson at topless coffee shop

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A man blamed for a fire that destroyed a coffee shop where topless waitresses worked has been found guilty of arson.

A jury convicted Raymond Bellavance Jr. on Friday after deliberating for four hours.

Prosecutors said "anger and jealousy" caused Bellavance to set fire to the coffee shop, where his ex-girlfriend worked as a waitress. Deputy District Attorney Alan Kelley told jurors Bellavance was "a volatile man" who was quick to anger because his former girlfriend was having a relationship with the shop's owner, the Bangor Daily News reported.

The Grand View Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, a town of about 4,000 residents just north of the state capital, Augusta, burned down June 3, 2009.

The defense insisted Bellavance didn't do it.

Bellavance testified he wasn't jealous. He said other people, including a man who testified he helped set the fire, were lying.

A witness who recently finished a drug rehabilitation program testified last week that he was present when Bellavance poured and ignited gasoline behind the coffee shop in the early morning hours. Thomas Mulkern said Bellavance then became upset, telling him they could get life in prison because there were people inside the adjoining apartments.

Coffee shop owner Donald Crabtree and six other people, including two infants, were sleeping in a room connected to the shop. All escaped without injury.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangordailynews.com

Continue Reading... Labels: arson, coffee, guilty, Maine, topless

Bookseller guilty of terror crime

12 December 2011 Last updated at 12:40 ET

Ahmed Faraz: Denied charges

A bookseller from Birmingham has been convicted of possessing and distributing material that prosecutors said "primed people for terrorism".

Ahmed Faraz had material including an al-Qaeda training manual, bomb making instructions, and footage of murders - Briton Ken Bigley's among them.

Faraz, 32, had claimed the material was for academic research.

Jurors at Kingston Crown Court found Faraz guilty of 11 of 15 counts against him. He will be sentenced on Tuesday.

Faraz had initially faced 30 counts of possessing and distributing extremist material - but Mr Justice Calvert-Smith had directed jurors earlier in the trial to return not guilty verdicts for eight of the counts against him - and others have been left on file.

He was not accused of being part of a specific plot.

Faraz was found guilty of possessing and disseminating some of the most well-known publications found in the homes of people convicted of terrorism-related offences over the past decade.

Some of them were accounts of resistance by Muslims in various historic events, including the battle against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Other material related more directly to al-Qaeda's philosophy or its historic roots.

One of the books he was found guilty of disseminating was an edition of Milestones, an important text in the development of Islamist political thinking in the 20th century.

The book, by Sayyid Qutb, is freely available and is studied widely. But police said the special edition of Milestones sold by Faraz was developed specifically to promote extremist ideology.

Other charges related to military training videos, including bomb-making instructions.

In a statement after the verdict, the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) said Faraz had been convicted of seven counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and four counts of possession of information likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism. Seven other similar charges would lie on file.

Police in January 2007 and January 2010 seized thousands of books, videos, DVDs, invoices and other records from Faraz's Maktabah shop and other addresses associated with him.

Bookshop: Included adapted versions of well-known texts

Officers also recovered a "substantial" number of computer files containing copies of terrorist publications and evidence of widespread distribution, the CTU said.

Det Chief Supt Kenny Bell of West Midlands Police said: "This trial was not about censoring books but about the defendant's role in the mass distribution of material, which had been added to and manipulated, in order to prime would-be terrorists to commit violent acts.

"Some of these publications have previously been cited by convicted terrorists as influencing their actions. Other items contained explicit instructions on how to make explosive devices and how to kidnap people.

"The content of some of the material that formed part of the investigation was so graphic we could not show it to the jury."

Continue Reading... Labels: Bookseller, crime, guilty, terror