SAO PAULO – Brazil is cutting prison terms for inmates who hit the books behind bars.
A law published Thursday in the official gazette says prisoners will get one day knocked off their sentences for every 12 hours in the classroom.
Justice Ministry spokesman Marcos Vinicius says it applies to all inmates regardless of the crime they have committed. The law also cuts prison sentences by one day for every three that inmates work behind bars or in work-release programs.
ADEN (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have detained the director of a prison for questioning over the escape of 63 al Qaeda inmates earlier this week, state television said Saturday.
It said the deputy director of the al-Munawara prison in the southern city of al-Mukalla also was detained for questioning. It gave no further details.
The United States and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia are worried that Yemen, rocked by months of popular protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year-old rule, could slide into violence that would be exploited by the local al Qaeda wing to launch attacks in the region and beyond.
The prisoners escaped Wednesday after they dug a 35-m (yard) long tunnel. They attacked prison guards, killing one and wounding two, before they escaped, the state news agency Saba said.
It said security forces pursued the prisoners, killing three and recapturing two.
Yemen state television said Saturday that the body of a fourth inmate had been found. It said he had been sentenced to death.
All the prisoners were Yemeni and most had been jailed after returning from Iraq where they fought alongside militant, he said.
The current head of al Qaeda's wing in Yemen, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, was among 23 prisoners who escaped from a Yemeni jail in 2006.
Yemen is battling hundreds of Islamist militants associated with al Qaeda who have seized control of the southern city of Zinjibar and other adjacent towns.
(Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Michael Roddy)
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday ordered former media baron Conrad Black back to prison for 13 more months, cutting his original 6 1/2-year sentence nearly in half for remaining fraud and obstruction of justice convictions.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve, in pronouncing a total sentence of 42 months, told the 66-year-old member of Britain's House of Lords she was swayed by letters from fellow inmates and other factors in departing from federal guidelines calling for a stiffer resentencing.
Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black, collapsed immediately in her seat after St. Eve ruled, and was assisted out of the courtroom by medical personnel.
She later walked out of the courthouse supported on her husband's arm, wearing sunglasses. A U.S. marshal who had rushed to her side said she was fine, and possibly dehydrated.
After serving 29 months in prison, Black was released in July 2010 based on a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court narrowed the scope of the federal honest services law used to help convict him and an appeals court subsequently voided two of three fraud counts against him. That necessitated the resentencing on Friday.
"It's a very serious crime," St. Eve told the silver-haired former chief executive of newspaper publishing giant Hollinger International Inc.
"Corporate executives need to be sent a message that the company's money belongs to the company, and its shareholders," she said. "You had a duty of trust. The shareholders put their trust in you. And you violated that trust."
In departing from federal guidelines calling for Black to be resentenced to between 51 and 63 months, St. Eve cited his conduct in prison, his charitable work with the family foundation, his advanced age and the unlikelihood he would ever commit another crime.
The letters from inmates who served time with Black at Coleman prison in Florida said he had been generous with his time and tutelage.
Before the sentencing, Black spoke at length, and with typical eloquence, about his sense of the case that began some eight years ago with an accusation he and his colleagues had engaged in a $500 million "kleptocracy."
The Canadian-born Black said he had been unfairly portrayed as a "guerrilla warrior" objecting to the U.S. justice system, countering, "I have been absolutely submissive to legal authority."
'I DO BELIEVE IN REPENTANCE'
He stopped short of expressing remorse, saying he regretted the loss of $2 billion in shareholder value caused by fallout from the case against him and four other Hollinger executives.
Black was convicted of scheming with partner David Radler and other executives to siphon off millions of dollars in proceeds from the sales of newspapers as they unwound Hollinger, once the world's third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers. It operated the Chicago Sun-Times, Jerusalem Post, London's Daily Telegraph and dozens of other newspapers across North America.
"I do believe in repentance ... and punishment," he said. "It is right that people inevitably pay for their mistakes."
He quoted Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and other notables, and said he had become a patient in psychoanalysis since his release in July, learning that "it is practically impossible to suppress conscientious remorse."
Black said a lawsuit he filed in Canada against the authors of a report condemning his reign at Hollinger was near a settlement, and would result in a payment to him for the "scurrilous charges" contained in it.
St. Eve said she would grant Black up to two months before he must surrender to finish out his sentence, noting that unlike U.S. citizens convicted of financial crimes, he was not eligible for a low-security prison "camp." He also is ineligible for a halfway house before release.
As a British citizen convicted of a felony, Black will be forced to leave the United States on release, but he may be allowed to return to Canada.
"I have always tried to take success like a gentleman and disappointment like a man," Black said.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Convicted former media baron Conrad Black was ordered back to prison by a U.S. judge on Friday to continue serving time on fraud counts.
Judge Amy St. Eve of U.S. District Court, who sentenced Black to 6-1/2 years on fraud and obstruction of justice convictions following his 2007 trial, sentenced the 66-year-old member of Britain's House of Lords to 42 months, including the 29 months already served.
Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black, collapsed immediately after St. Eve ruled, and was assisted out of the courtroom by medical personnel.
Black was released from prison in July 2010 based on a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court narrowed the scope of the federal honest services law used to help convict him.
(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)
SANAA (Reuters) – A senior U.S. official held talks on Wednesday with government officials in Yemen, which is teetering on the brink of civil war over President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to meet protesters' demands to step down.
The United States and Saudi Arabia fear that a power vacuum and tribal warfare in Yemen will be exploited by the local wing of al Qaeda to launch attacks in the region and beyond.
On Wednesday, dozens of al Qaeda militants escaped from a prison in the city of al-Mukalla in southern Yemen, a region where security forces and militants often clash.
A Yemeni government source said Jeffrey Feltman, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, would meet Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi and Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is acting president.
He was also due to hold talks with Saleh's son, Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had been widely thought to be next in line for the presidency until protests broke out earlier this year.
Saleh is in Saudi Arabia recovering from injuries sustained in an attack on his palace in Sanaa nearly three weeks ago.
Feltman's talks will cover a transfer of power from the president to his deputy, the government source said.
As commander of the Republican Guards, the main strike force in Yemen, Ahmed Ali holds an influential position in the country of 23 million, which sits on the southern border of Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.
Saleh has defied calls from global leaders, elements in his own military and tens of thousands of protesters to end his 33- year-old rule, which has brought Yemen close to financial ruin.
He has also exasperated his rich Gulf Arab neighbors by three times agreeing to step down, only to pull out of a power transition plan at the last minute and cling on to power.
AL QAEDA MILITANTS ESCAPE FROM PRISON
In an early bid to placate protesters demanding his ouster, Saleh promised not to hand power to his son, but many Yemenis say Saleh relatives including Ahmed Ali still hold key levers of power, blocking any transition without Saleh's consent.
Opposition parties allied with youth activists have also insisted that Saleh formally hand over power to Hadi as a step toward a new government and democracy.
An aide to Saleh said on Wednesday his health was on the mend and that he had been receiving guests and giving orders on Yemen's day-to-day affairs, including power and fuel shortages.
"The president has rejected a request from several members of his family to come to Riyadh to visit him, and stressed that he will return home soon," Ahmed al-Sufi, the president's media secretary, told Reuters.
Dozens of al Qaeda militants escaped from a jail in Mukalla following an attack on the compound. State media said three were killed in a clash with troops and two were recaptured.
"Ten of the escapees are dangerous elements who belonged to a cell that had attacked government officials and tourists," a local security official told Reuters.
One soldier was killed and two were wounded when militants opened fire on al-Munawara prison in Mukalla, a security official said.
"The militants opened fire on the prison gates and exchanged fire with the guards, injuring two and killing one," the security official said, adding that 62 prisoners had fled.
All the prisoners were Yemeni and most had been jailed after returning from Iraq where they fought in militant ranks, he said.
(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam in Sanaa and Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; writing by Sami Aboudi; editing by Alistair Lyon)
SANAA (Reuters) – A senior U.S. official is holding talks on Wednesday with government officials in Yemen, which is teetering on the brink of civil war over President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to meet protesters' demands to step down.
The United States and ally Saudi Arabia fear that a power vacuum and tribal warfare in Yemen will be exploited by the local wing of al Qaeda to launch attacks in the region and beyond.
On Wednesday, dozens of al Qaeda militants escaped from a prison the city of al-Mukalla in southern Yemen, the latest in a series of increasingly deadly clashes between security forces and militants in the south of the country.
A Yemeni government source said Jeffrey Feltman, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, will meet Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi and Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is acting president.
He is also due to hold talks with Saleh's son, Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had been widely thought to be next in line for the presidency until protests broke out earlier this year.
Saleh is in Saudi Arabia recovering from injuries sustained in an attack on his palace in Sanaa nearly three weeks ago.
Talks will focus on "the situation in Yemen and the issue of the transfer of power" by the president to his deputy, the government source said.
As commander of the Republican Guards, the main strike force in Yemen, Ahmed Ali holds sway in the country of 23 million, which sits on the southern border of Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.
Saleh has defied calls from global leaders, elements in his own military and tens of thousands of protesters to end his 33 year-rule, which has brought Yemen close to financial ruin.
He has also exasperated his rich Gulf Arab neighbors by three times agreeing to step down, only to pull out of a power transition plan at the last minute and cling on to power.
AL QAEDA MILITANTS ESCAPE FROM PRISON
In an early bid to placate protesters demanding his ouster, Saleh guaranteed he would not hand power down to his son, but many Yemenis say key members of Saleh's family including Ahmed Ali remain firmly in control of key levers of power, blocking any handover of power without Saleh's consent.
Opposition parties allied with youth activists have also insisted that Saleh formally hand over power to Hadi as a step toward a new government and democracy.
An aide to Saleh said on Wednesday his health was on the mend and that he had been receiving guests and giving instructions on day-to-day affairs in Yemen, including a power cut and fuel shortages.
"The president has rejected a request from several members of his family to come to Riyadh to visit him, and stressed that he will return home soon," said Ahmed al-Sufi, the president's media secretary told Reuters.
Dozens of al Qaeda militants escaped from a jail in southern Yemen on Wednesday following an attack on the compound.
One soldier was killed and two were wounded when militants opened fire on al-Munawara prison in the southern port city of al-Mukalla, a security official said.
"The militants opened fire on the prison gates and exchanged fire with the guards, injuring two and killing one," the security official said, adding that 62 prisoners had fled.
All the prisoners were Yemeni and most of them had been jailed after returning from Iraq where they fought in militant ranks, he said.
(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam, Writing by Sami Aboudi)
MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahrain sentenced 10 prominent Shi'ite activists and opposition leaders to life in prison on Wednesday on charges of plotting a coup during protests in the Gulf island kingdom earlier this year.
The sentencing could inflame tensions in the Gulf Arab kingdom, where demonstrators have launched small protests every day after emergency law was lifted on June 1. It may also threaten a national dialogue planned to start next month.
Seconds after the verdict was issued, one of 21 defendants lined up in grey prison suits shouted: "We will continue our peaceful struggle." Other defendants responded by shaking their fists and shouting "peaceful, peaceful."
Police officers pulled them out of the courtroom.
Some of the defendant's family members shouted "God is great," and one woman was dragged out of the courtroom. Her relatives say her whereabouts are unknown.
Among those who received life sentences was Shi'ite dissident Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the hardline opposition group Haq, and Abduljalil al-Singace from the same party. Haq joined two other groups in calling for the overthrow of the monarchy during mass protests in February and March.
Ibrahim Sharif, the Sunni leader of the secular leftist Waad party, was sentenced to five years in prison. Waad and Bahrain's largest Shi'ite opposition group Wefaq had called for reform of the monarchy.
Representatives from several European embassies as well as the United States were in the courtroom, where other defendants received prison terms ranging from two to 15 years.
The charges ranged from incitement to attempting to overthrow the government by force in collusion with "a terrorist organization" working for a foreign country.
Bahrain's Sunni rulers, backed by forces from neighboring Sunni Gulf Arab states, crushed weeks of protests in March mostly by members of the Shi'ite majority. Manama says the protests had a sectarian agenda backed by Shi'ite power Iran.
The opposition argues the charges aim to distract Bahrain's ally the United States, which has its Navy's Fifth Fleet in the country, from activists' calls for democratic reform.
SURPRISE OUTCOME
Some observers have suggested King Hamad bin Isa may try to cool tensions before the dialogue by granting a general amnesty to many of those jailed in recent trials.
But opposition groups said they were surprised by the severity of the sentences before the planned talks.
"It's good no one got the death penalty but still, this will not be the right way to start dialogue. The sentences were much harsher than we expected," said a member of Bahrain's leading opposition group, Wefaq. "This is very bad."
Government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Members of the secular Waad party said they had been expecting Sharif, the party head, to be released.
"This was really surprising," one Waad member said. "It may affect our decision to go to dialogue but it's unclear, we still want to move forward for the country's future and there is always appeal."
The Danish-Bahraini citizen Abdulhady al-Khawaja, a rights activist, also received a life sentence.
"People will go out today now for sure, people will be angry. They will go to the streets because all of these were unfair trials," a relative of Khawaja said.
Bahrain says it has tried only a small number of the demonstrators, targeting those who were involved in criminal activity. The government contests the opposition's estimate that some 400 people are on trial, saying the number is far smaller.
"It seemed everything went according to the rules," one diplomat told Reuters after the trial. "At the same time it feels like the sentence was decided before it even started."
(Editing by Sami Aboudi and Elizabeth Piper)
GUATIRE, Venezuela – Fire ripped through a prison where thousands of Venezuelan troops struggled to put down a revolt by inmates on Sunday as dozens of horrified relatives tried to watch the fighting.
Officials gave few descriptions about the progress of the three-day battle at the Rodeo I prison and did not say if more people had been killed or injured beyond the three dead and 18 wounded reported on the first day of the clash. Gunfire continued to rattle from the compound.
Deputy Justice Minister Nestor Reverol told state television the pre-dawn fire was caused by a short circuit, and that inmates had been evacuated before flames engulfed a building. Some relatives outside said that prisoners with cell phones had told them troops started the blaze.
Evelyn Rodriguez, 27, climbed a nearby hill for a view and gasped when she peered through binoculars to see the prison blacked by the fire.
"My husband and my brother were inside that building," Rodriguez said, trying to hold back tears. "I have no idea what has happened to them."
The violence erupted in the El Rodeo I prison as troops searched for weapons, and has since extended to Rodeo II, an adjacent prison. A riot at El Rodeo I on June 12 left 22 dead.
It was not clear how many inmates remained at the prison or how many were resisting the troops. Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said Sunday that at least 2,500 inmates had been transferred to other prisons.
A 5,000-strong security force, including 3,500 National Guard troops, was joined on Saturday by 400 soldiers from an elite army paratroop unit, according to officials.
Journalists from The Associated Press watched half a dozen armored vehicles circle courtyards inside the compound on Sunday. Troops lined up along tree-covered hillsides surrounding the prisons and repeatedly fired volleys of tear gas canisters.
Gunfire erupted sporadically throughout the day.
Venezuela's severely crowded prisons have suffered repeated violent outbursts as rival gangs often fight for control of cellblocks and sell weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt prison guards.
The country's 30 prisons were built to hold about 12,500 prisoners but instead hold about 49,000, according to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, a group that monitors prison conditions.
Last year, 476 peopled died and 967 people were injured in the country's prison system, according to figures compiled by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Human Rights Watch also said in a recent report that about three out of four inmates in Venezuela's prison system have yet to be sentenced due to backlogs in the country's slow-moving justice system.
Relatives and friends of prisoners complained on Sunday that authorities have not informed them if their loved ones are safe.
"This is a tremendous Father's Day present they've given us," Rodriguez said sourly.
CARACAS, Venezuela – Gunfire rang out at a Venezuelan prison for a second day Saturday as thousands of troops sought to regain control in battles that have left at least 3 dead and 18 wounded.
National Guard Gen. Luis Motta Dominguez said one inmate had died in addition to two National Guard troops whose deaths were confirmed earlier. At least 18 troops were reported wounded in Friday's clashes at the prison in Guatire, east of Caracas.
The violence erupted in the El Rodeo I prison as troops were searching it for weapons. A riot in the prison on June 12 left 22 dead.
About 50 inmates continued to resist the troops and were refusing dialogue, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami told state television.
El Aissami later addressed the inmates with a megaphone, saying: "The call is for you to change your attitude and lay down your weapons." He said the prisoners' rights would be respected.
"Think about your families, about your children," he said.
More than 70 inmates accused of leading gangs within the prison were transferred elsewhere, El Aissami told state television.
Inmates relatives' protested earlier outside the prison, some of them weeping as troops stood guard in anti-riot gear. Soldiers used tear gas at one point Saturday to drive back the distraught relatives.
A 5,000-strong security force, including 3,500 National Guard troops, was joined on Saturday by 400 soldiers from an elite army paratroop unit, officials said. They were occupying both El Rodeo I and the adjacent El Rodeo II prison.
During Friday's search, soldiers seized seven rifles, five shotguns, 20 handguns and eight hand grenades, along with about 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of cocaine, 5,000 rifle cartridges and 100 cellular phones, Motta Dominguez said.
Venezuela's severely crowded prisons have suffered repeated violent outbursts as rival gangs often fight for control of cellblocks and sell weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt prison guards.
The country's 30 prisons were built to hold about 12,500 prisoners but instead hold about 49,000, according to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, a group that monitors prison conditions.
Last year, 476 peopled died and 967 people were injured in the country's prison system, according to figures compiled by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Human Rights Watch also said in a recent report that about three out of four inmates in Venezuela's prison system have yet to be sentenced due to backlogs in the country's slow-moving justice system.
President Hugo Chavez has pledged to improve conditions in the prisons, but the violence has worsened recently. After the deadly riot last week, the government announced that a new government ministry would be created to focus on prison issues.
GUATIRE, Venezuela – National Guard troops stormed a Venezuelan prison Friday seeking to disarm inmates days after a bloody riot, and at least seven troops were wounded by gunfire as some prisoners resisted.
Bursts of gunfire erupted inside the El Rodeo I prison while hundreds of inmates' relatives wept desperately outside the prison, some of them shouting, "Help them!" A military helicopter circled overhead.
At least seven National Guard troops were wounded by gunfire and were being treated, said Nestor Reverol, a deputy justice minister.
"Part of those who are incarcerated have resisted," Reverol told state television. He said they were in a prison tower and had refused to come down.
Fierce gunfire rang out inside the prison in what appeared be shootouts. A fire broke out in a prison tower, and then died down as the gunfire persisted.
More than 3,500 troops were taking part in the operation in El Rodeo I and El Rodeo II prisons in Guatire, east of the capital, Caracas, and had more than 1,700 inmates under control, Reverol said.
The violence erupted as troops were carrying out a search operation to disarm inmates, National Guard Gen. Luis Motta Dominguez told state television. A riot in the prison on Sunday left 21 inmates and a visitor dead.
Friday's clashes were the latest in a series of violent outbursts in Venezuela's severely crowded prisons, where rival gangs often fight for control of cellblocks and sell weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt prison guards.
As the gunfire raged in the prison Friday, inmates' relatives expressed anguish. Ambulances drove in and out of the prison compound.
"We have our hands tied," said Cecilia Mijares, 49, whose nephew was among the prisoners inside. "This started early this morning. Listen to the gunfire."
Government officials said the purpose of the operation was precisely to safeguard the lives of inmates.
Vice President Elias Jaua said the government's message for inmates' families is that "the intervention we're carrying out today isn't to massacre their relatives."
"It's to protect the lives of more than 5,000 inmates," Jaua said in a televised speech.
A total of 124 deaths were reported in Venezuela's prisons in the first three months of this year, a 22 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, a watchdog group.
(CNN) -- Iranian prison guards abused and assaulted two U.S. hikers who have been detained in the Islamic Republic since 2009, according to their friend Sarah Shourd, who was released last year.
In an interview with the BBC this week, Shourd described the abuse that Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer experienced before Shourd was released on $500,000 bail in September, according to a statement released by the families Thursday.
A guard at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison was furious that Fattal took extra food and pushed him down the stairs, Shourd said. The guard repeatedly threw Bauer against a wall of his cell until his head began bleeding.
She said the three had feared that they would be executed soon after they were arrested, when a guard began cocking his gun.
The two men are allowed limited communication these days, and their families have no way of knowing their condition.
"My worst fear is that they're not safe," Shourd said. "They don't have consular access, they're not allowed to see their lawyer, and we fear the worst."
In July 2009, Shourd, 32, Fattal, 29, and Bauer, 28, were hiking in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish area along the border with Iran when they were arrested by Iranian police. Shourd said they accidentally strayed across the border. Iranian authorities say the three crossed into Iran illegally.
Twice, they feared for their lives as guards loaded them into a vehicle to a mysterious location and cocked their weapons, Shourd said. Terrified, they held hands, cried out and begged for their lives.
Even though Shourd is free, she, along with the families of Fattal and Bauer, remains focused on helping her friends to freedom. Shourd and the families have begun fasting in an effort to show their solidarity and support for the imprisoned men.
Fattal and Bauer started their own hunger strike when they were no longer allowed to receive family letters. They have been allowed only three brief phone calls to their families; the most recent was May 22.
Fattal and Bauer were supposed to attend a trial hearing May 11 but never showed. Their absence has not been explained by Iranian officials.
"We are shocked and angry at the way Shane and Josh are being treated and the terrible incidents that Sarah has told us about only heighten our grave concern for their physical and mental welfare," said the family statement.
"The people who are holding Shane and Josh are breaking Iran's laws ... and behaving shamefully. This nightmare must end and Shane and Josh must be released."(CNN) -- Iranian prison guards abused and assaulted two U.S. hikers who have been detained in the Islamic Republic since 2009, according to their friend Sarah Shourd, who was released last year.
In an interview with the BBC this week, Shourd described the abuse that Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer experienced before Shourd was released on $500,000 bail in September, according to a statement released by the families Thursday.
A guard at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison was furious that Fattal took extra food and pushed him down the stairs, Shourd said. The guard repeatedly threw Bauer against a wall of his cell until his head began bleeding.
She said the three had feared that they would be executed soon after they were arrested, when a guard began cocking his gun.
The two men are allowed limited communication these days, and their families have no way of knowing their condition.
"My worst fear is that they're not safe," Shourd said. "They don't have consular access, they're not allowed to see their lawyer, and we fear the worst."
In July 2009, Shourd, 32, Fattal, 29, and Bauer, 28, were hiking in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish area along the border with Iran when they were arrested by Iranian police. Shourd said they accidentally strayed across the border. Iranian authorities say the three crossed into Iran illegally.
Twice, they feared for their lives as guards loaded them into a vehicle to a mysterious location and cocked their weapons, Shourd said. Terrified, they held hands, cried out and begged for their lives.
Even though Shourd is free, she, along with the families of Fattal and Bauer, remains focused on helping her friends to freedom. Shourd and the families have begun fasting in an effort to show their solidarity and support for the imprisoned men.
Fattal and Bauer started their own hunger strike when they were no longer allowed to receive family letters. They have been allowed only three brief phone calls to their families; the most recent was May 22.
Fattal and Bauer were supposed to attend a trial hearing May 11 but never showed. Their absence has not been explained by Iranian officials.
"We are shocked and angry at the way Shane and Josh are being treated and the terrible incidents that Sarah has told us about only heighten our grave concern for their physical and mental welfare," said the family statement.
"The people who are holding Shane and Josh are breaking Iran's laws ... and behaving shamefully. This nightmare must end and Shane and Josh must be released."Los Angeles (CNN) -- California wants to shift low-level state offenders to county jails as a way to reduce overcrowding, as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court, under an unfunded plan that would require legislative and voter approval, the state's top corrections official said Tuesday.
State officials filed the plan, which would reduce the state's 143,000 inmate population by 33,000, with federal courts Tuesday.
California voters in November would have to approve taxes to fund the plan, and state legislators also would have to approve money for the measure, officials said. The first year of the plan would cost $460 million, a state corrections spokesman said.
"There is still a risk associated with long-term funding for this plan," California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate told reporters. "The option is we do nothing or we wait until November, or we extend the revenues and we start and we demonstrate to the court that we can get this done."
If funding for the plan isn't advanced by the legislature and voters, a special court panel could order the state to free inmates, Cate said.
"I think it's scary to everyone, and I think it would be an irresponsible approach," he said.
California officials are trying to avoid that possibility through the plan with county jails, a construction program, and an ongoing program sending 10,000 inmates to contracted out-of-state facilities.
"We'll react to the facts as they arise in November. I just don't know what else you do that is responsible in light of the Supreme Court's order," Cate said. "Obviously we're planning for the legislature to act and the voters to approve. If they don't, then we have to really address what's next."
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a three-judge federal panel's determination that California's medical and mental health care for inmates falls below a constitutional level of care and that the only way to meet the requirements is by reducing prison crowding, state officials said.
The "public safety realignment plan," outlined under a law that Gov. Jerry Brown signed in April, would help reduce prison crowding by shifting 33,000 low-level offenders to county jails.
Efforts to fund the plan could face an uphill battle because the state is grappling with a staggering $25 billion budget deficit.
State prison officials called the realignment plan "the cornerstone of California's solution" to prison overcrowding, which the U.S. Supreme Court said in a 5-4 decision last month falls "below the standard of decency."
Under the court order, the first round of inmate reductions will have to occur by November 28 when the population in the 33 prisons must drop to 133,016 from 143,435, Cate said.
He added that the reduction of "10,500 is a big goal for five month and three weeks."
Cate insisted that the state will not arbitrarily free 33,000 inmates.
"Our current reduction plan does not include the early release of inmates. But it is absolutely critical that the legislature understand the seriousness of the Supreme Court's decision and support a variety of measures that will allow us to lower our inmate population in the safest possible way," Cate said in a prepared statement. "The Legislature must act to protect public safety by funding realignment."
California has the nation's largest prison system, and the state says it has been reducing overcrowding.
But two lawsuits -- one filed in 1990, the other in 2001 -- say the crowding is at the core of a domino effect of unsafe and unhealthy conditions for those on both sides of the iron bars.
State legislators and corrections officials have admitted the prisons violate the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" contained in the Constitution, and have organized more than 20 panels and commissions to address the crisis.
When plaintiffs in the lawsuits filed motions to convene the three-judge court panel in November 2006, California's prisons were at 202% of design capacity, state officials said. California's 33 prisons were designed to hold 79,858 inmates, they said.
Those prisons are now operating at 179% of capacity, officials said.
Under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the 33 adult prisons must be no more than 167% percent of design capacity by November 28, 2011; 155% by May 24, 2012; 147% by November 26, 2012: and 137.5% by May 24, 2013, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt's public prosecutor said on Tuesday that ousted President Hosni Mubarak was in no condition to be transferred to a prison hospital and would remain in a health facility in a Red Sea resort for the time being.
Mubarak, overthrown on February 11 after a popular uprising, has been detained since mid-April in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh, rather than in a prison medical center, after it was reported that he suffered heart problems during initial questioning.
A medical team determined that Mubarak should not be transferred "outside of Sharm el-Sheikh hospital at the current time and to hire a specialized medical team to oversee his treatment," the prosecutor said in a statement.
"The committee examined the patient in his intensive care room and found that he is clearly frail and depressed and cannot leave the bed without assistance," it said.
It added that the Torah prison hospital on Cairo's outskirts was "unsuitable for a patient in a critical condition."
Mubarak was ordered last week to stand trial for the killing of protesters, corruption and wasting public funds. The charges, which he has denied, include "premeditated killing," a crime which is punishable by death.
The timing of the illness meant he has not joined other former officials in jail and has fueled talk that he was getting special treatment from the army. The military now ruling Egypt deny this and say the case is in the hands of the judiciary.
The six-member medical team appointed by the prosecutor found Mubarak had low blood pressure, weak blood circulation to the brain resulting in frequent fainting and an irregular heartbeat, leaving him at risk of sudden heart attack, the statement said.
It noted he suffered from tumors in his gall bladder and pancreas, for which he has had operations in the past.
(Reporting by Dina Zayed; editing by Michael Roddy)
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Some prisoners learn woodworking or license-plate making. But bartending?
A prison workshop in northern Mexico where inmates were supposed to be learning trades was found to contain a bar behind bars — complete with beer, vodka, tequila, and billiard tables.
Federal police and local authorities discovered the bar Monday at a minimum-security prison in the northern state of Chihuahua, the state attorney general's office said in a statement.
Seized from the site were 20 bottles of vodka, 12 bottles of tequila, and 200 beer cans. Police also found three guns, 20 cell phones, 180 individual doses of marijuana and 90 doses of heroin.
The prison's deputy director was fired Wednesday and prison guards are under investigation, said Jorge Chaires, a spokesman for the state's prosecutor for prisons.
Also Wednesday, guards conducting a routine check at a prison in the northern state of Tamaulipas discovered 17 inmates missing, the state's Public Safety Department said in a statement. The prison is located in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas.
Authorities later found a tunnel leading out of the prison from the laundry room, the statement said. The prison's director and eight guards were being questioned.
Security at Mexican state prisons is notoriously lax. Jailbreaks are common, inmates are often found to be directing criminal operations from behind bars, and corrupt guards are often found to be involved.
Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has affirmed a federal order telling California to reduce its overflowing prison population, a situation the majority said "falls below the standard of decency."
The 5-4 ruling Monday from the justices come in a classic battle over state versus federal authority, focusing on whether U.S. courts can step in and essentially run state prisons when officials have repeatedly violated basic constitutional guarantees afforded inmates.
The issue came down to a sharply divided debate between public safety concerns and individual rights, a debate that goes into how the three branches of government should balance competing state interests.
The swing vote was Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote of the "continuing injury and harm resulting from these serious constitutional violations," including as many as 156,000 people crammed in correctional facilities designed to hold about half that many.
He noted "needless suffering and death have been the well-documented result. Over the whole course of years during which this litigation has been pending, no other remedies have been found to be sufficient."
In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito warned any mass release of inmates to alleviate overcrowding would be "gambling with the safety of the people of California."
The state now has a two-year window to comply, with the clock starting Monday. Officials have not fully explained how their ongoing inmate reduction plan will need to be modified to meet the federal order.
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, California Gov. Jerry Brown said he would take "all steps necessary to protect public safety" in implementing the order.
Brown, a Democrat, signed legislation in April that was aimed at cutting the state's prison population by tens of thousands, largely by housing non-violent felons with sentences less than three years in county jails. In his Monday statement, Brown said the court's ruling recognized that law as "key to meeting this obligation," but said the plan still needs "full and constitutionally guaranteed funding."
Prison overcrowding is a nationwide problem, but California's dilemma is unique in its massive scope and time frame. There is general agreement that the prison conditions across California are disturbing.
Prisoners are stacked three deep in 6-by-9-foot cells designed to hold only one. Open spaces meant to be gymnasiums and clinics have been transformed into crowded encampments with bunks and unsanitary conditions. Suicides occur once every eight days on average.
California has the nation's largest prison system, and the state says it has reduced the prison population to meet overcrowding concerns. But a special federal court panel had ordered 36,000 to 46,000 more inmates released or transferred quickly, about a quarter of the total.
Despite some recent drops, the prison population in the state has increased by about 75 percent in the past two decades.
Two lawsuits -- one filed in 1990, the other in 2001 -- say overcrowding is the core cause of what has become a domino effect of unsafe and unhealthy conditions for those on both sides of the iron bars.
State legislators and corrections officials have admitted the prisons violate the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" contained in the Constitution, and have organized more than 20 panels and commissions to address the crisis.
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who left office in January, had blamed the legislature for not approving more money to build new prisons, or reforming the way defendants are punished and sentenced, particular repeat offenders.
"I don't blame the courts for stepping in to try to solve the overcrowding crisis," he said three years ago. "The fact of the matter is, for decades the state of California hasn't really taken it seriously and hasn't really done something about it."
The special federal court in 2009 had ordered the state to shrink the prison population from the current 200% over capacity to a maximum of 137.5%, and to accomplish that in two years. The state was given wide latitude to meet the goal, but the court was adamant the state do it without delay and without excuse.
The task was made more difficult by the state budget crisis and a national economic downturn that has created turmoil over funding solutions not just in prisons, but also in education, transportation, and social programs.
Kennedy spent most his 52-page majority opinion affirming the right of federal courts to step into the situation.
"This extensive and ongoing constitutional violation requires a remedy, and a remedy will not be achieved without a reduction in overcrowding," he wrote. "The relief ordered by the three-judge court is required by the Constitution and was authorized by Congress in (federal law). The state shall implement the order without further delay."
The state has already begun to comply; about 9,000 inmates have been released since the 2009 trial stemming from the lawsuits.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan supported Kennedy's conclusions.
Two tough dissents followed the majority's ruling. Reading from the bench, Justice Antonin Scalia said the ruling represents "the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation's history." He said it "takes federal courts wildly beyond their institutional capacity." Justice Clarence Thomas backed him.
In a separate dissent, Alito spoke of the potential impact of the decision.
"The prisoner release ordered in this case is unprecedented, improvident, and contrary" to federal law, he said. "I fear that today's decision, like prior prisoner release orders, will lead to a grim roster of victims. I hope that I am wrong. In a few years we will see."
Chief Justice John Roberts added his support to Alito's dissent.
The case is Brown v. Plata (09-1233).(CNN) -- War criminal John Demjanjuk has been released after voluntarily spending time in prison while German prison officials found a nursing home able to take him on short notice, the officials said Friday.
Demjanjuk had been freed pending an appeal after being convicted Thursday in the murder of tens of thousands of Jews at a Nazi concentration camp, capping a 30-year legal saga.
"He came back to our prison voluntarily yesterday even though he was a free man" during the appeal, said Michael Stumpf, the director of the Stadelheim prison in Munich.
The regional court in Munich found Demjanjuk guilty of assisting in mass murder as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland. The 91-year-old Ukraine native was sentenced to five years in prison, but was allowed to remain free pending appeal due to age and a lack of flight risk.
"The guards knew exactly what would happen to the people arriving at the camp, from everyday abuse to gruesome murders," the court said in announcing the verdict. Duties rotated around the camp, "so that every single guard would be involved in all parts of the process," it said.
Demjanjuk's defense argued that he was a prisoner of war who was forced to do what the Nazis wanted. But the court rejected that claim, concluding that Demjanjuk could have fled "despite a certain degree of risk for himself."
The Nazis and their sympathizers killed at least 167,000 people at Sobibor in 1942 and 1943, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Munich state prosecutors charged Demjanjuk as an accessory to about 27,900 of those deaths, and the court found the killings were "motivated by racial hatred."
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of six years in what is likely the last major Nazi war crimes trial in Germany.
Jewish groups hailed the verdict soon after it was announced. Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, said the trial and ruling show there is no statute of limitations for the crimes of the Holocaust.
The accusations against Demjanjuk date to the late 1970s, when the U.S. Justice Department accused him of being a Nazi guard known as "Ivan the Terrible." His U.S. citizenship was revoked in 1981, and he was extradited to Israel in 1986.
He was convicted in an Israeli court in 1988 and sentenced to death, but that conviction was overturned in 1993 amid evidence that someone else was "Ivan the Terrible."
A U.S. federal court restored Demjanjuk's citizenship, ruling that the government withheld evidence supporting his case. But the onetime Ohio auto worker's citizenship was revoked again in 2002 after a federal judge ruled that his 1952 entry into the United States was illegal because he hid his past as a Nazi guard.(CNN) -- War criminal John Demjanjuk has been released after voluntarily spending time in prison while German prison officials found a nursing home able to take him on short notice, the officials said Friday.
Demjanjuk had been freed pending an appeal after being convicted Thursday in the murder of tens of thousands of Jews at a Nazi concentration camp, capping a 30-year legal saga.
"He came back to our prison voluntarily yesterday even though he was a free man" during the appeal, said Michael Stumpf, the director of the Stadelheim prison in Munich.
The regional court in Munich found Demjanjuk guilty of assisting in mass murder as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland. The 91-year-old Ukraine native was sentenced to five years in prison, but was allowed to remain free pending appeal due to age and a lack of flight risk.
"The guards knew exactly what would happen to the people arriving at the camp, from everyday abuse to gruesome murders," the court said in announcing the verdict. Duties rotated around the camp, "so that every single guard would be involved in all parts of the process," it said.
Demjanjuk's defense argued that he was a prisoner of war who was forced to do what the Nazis wanted. But the court rejected that claim, concluding that Demjanjuk could have fled "despite a certain degree of risk for himself."
The Nazis and their sympathizers killed at least 167,000 people at Sobibor in 1942 and 1943, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Munich state prosecutors charged Demjanjuk as an accessory to about 27,900 of those deaths, and the court found the killings were "motivated by racial hatred."
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of six years in what is likely the last major Nazi war crimes trial in Germany.
Jewish groups hailed the verdict soon after it was announced. Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, said the trial and ruling show there is no statute of limitations for the crimes of the Holocaust.
The accusations against Demjanjuk date to the late 1970s, when the U.S. Justice Department accused him of being a Nazi guard known as "Ivan the Terrible." His U.S. citizenship was revoked in 1981, and he was extradited to Israel in 1986.
He was convicted in an Israeli court in 1988 and sentenced to death, but that conviction was overturned in 1993 amid evidence that someone else was "Ivan the Terrible."
A U.S. federal court restored Demjanjuk's citizenship, ruling that the government withheld evidence supporting his case. But the onetime Ohio auto worker's citizenship was revoked again in 2002 after a federal judge ruled that his 1952 entry into the United States was illegal because he hid his past as a Nazi guard.Relatives of Brigadier Muaeid Mohammed Saleh load his coffin onto a vehicle during his funeral in Baghdad on Sunday, He was slain in an inmate uprising.
By Karim Kadim, APRelatives of Brigadier Muaeid Mohammed Saleh load his coffin onto a vehicle during his funeral in Baghdad on Sunday, He was slain in an inmate uprising.
Abu Huthaifa al-Battawi, the man accused by authorities of plotting the October attack on an Iraqi church killing 68 people, nearly drove out of Baghdad's Ministry of Interior with fellow inmates before being gunned down by guards.The melee at the sprawling compound raises questions about how a group of prisoners at what is supposed to be one of the most secure facilities in the country managed to launch such a fierce attack.The detainees, all accused of belonging to al-Qaida in Iraq, were being moved from a detention room to an interrogation room at the ministry grounds in eastern Baghdad when one of the detainees attacked a guard and wrestled away his weapon, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the top military spokesman in Baghdad.Two interior ministry officials said it was al-Battawi who launched the attack. One official said al-Battawi's hands had just been untied for his interrogation when he grabbed the weapon.The detainee killed the guard, moved into one of the rooms and killed another guard and took his weapon, al-Moussawi said. In all, the detainees managed to seize four weapons including an assault rifle.An Iraqi lawmaker on the security and defense committee, Hakim al-Zamili, said they also managed to get their hands on grenades.The prisoners then entered the office of Brigadier Muaeid Mohammed Saleh, the head of a department responsible for combating terrorism and organized crime in eastern Baghdad, and shot him along with another officer who was in the room."I was in the next room close to Brigadier Muaeid's room and I heard shots fired and screams in the corridor. I opened the door and saw about four al-Qaida detainees moving around and I closed the door back immediately," said Saleh's bodyguard, Jawad Kadhum."Then I heard one of them saying 'This is the director's room,' and I heard a flurry of gunshots," he said.Al-Moussawi said the assault by the prisoners was not spontaneous but appeared to have been plotted ahead of time. He said six police and 11 detainees were killed in the ensuing melee which lasted for nearly three hours before Iraqi security forces brought the situation under control.A group of the detainees, including al-Battawi, managed to seize a car and were driving toward the gate of the compound when a guard opened killed them with a machine gun, al-Zamili said.Al-Moussawi said the detainees were not shackled at the time, which is normal procedure except that since they were accused of being involved in al-Qaida, they should have been restrained."I blame the security measures in this case because they were senior terrorists," he said. "Tight security measures should have been taken."An Interior Ministry official on the scene said the guards violated procedure by keeping their weapons with them when moving the prisoners. Usually when prisoners are taken into the investigation room their restraints are removed but guards are not supposed to have their weapons on them at the time.The official said about 20 to 25 prisoners were involved in the melee.An additional eight police officers and six detainees were wounded, security and hospital officials said.The injured detainees were brought to Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital under tight security, treated and then taken away again by security officials to an unidentified location, officials said.All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.It is the latest embarrassing incident for Iraq related to its detention facilities.In January, 12 inmates, many believed to have links to al-Qaida in Iraq, were awaiting trial in a temporary detention center in the southern city of Basra when they obtained uniforms and walked out in disguise. They scattered after that to avoid the massive manhunt. At least two were later picked up by security officials in northern Iraq.Sunday's prison attack immediately led to cries of outrage over how such an incident could have happened."The Interior Ministry lets large number of dangerous terrorist leaders gather in one cell without any means of surveillance such as cameras and this makes them free to plot and even give orders to people outside to carry out attacks through mobiles smuggled to them in the prison," al-Zamili said.——Associated Press writers Saad Abdul-Kadir in Baghdad and Sameer N. Yacoub in Amman, Jordan contributed to this report.Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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