"Weinstein gets one sexual assault charge dismissed" by Jan Ransom and Alan Feuer New York Times October 12, 2018
NEW YORK — A judge dismissed one of six criminal charges against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein on Thursday after prosecutors acknowledged that they had discovered inconsistencies in statements made by one of his accusers.
The abrupt development, which took place at a hearing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, signaled a victory for Weinstein and raised questions about the impact the revelation would have on the broader case against him.
Weinstein, 66, was charged in May with raping one woman and forcing another, Lucia Evans, to perform oral sex on him. Evans, a marketing executive, had testified to a state grand jury that the forced sex act had occurred in 2004, during a casting meeting at the offices of Weinstein’s film company, Miramax, in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, but in a letter unsealed after Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office revealed that a friend of Evans informed them in August that Evans gave them a different account of the incident.
Prosecutors said the friend told them Evans had performed oral sex on Weinstein in exchange for the promise of an “acting job.”
The shameful secret is that is how Hollywood business has been conducted since its founding.
The friend said that she had related this account to the lead police detective on Weinstein’s case in February, more than three months before the producer was indicted. According to the letter, the detective, Nicholas DiGaudio, explained to the friend that she had no obligation to cooperate with prosecutors, telling her, “Less is more.”
So they wanted to get Weinstein?
The letter, which is dated Sept. 12, makes clear that Evans herself has disputed her friend’s account and still insists that she “never consented to any form of sex with” Weinstein, but it also notes that DiGaudio “failed to inform” prosecutors of “important details” of his February interview with Evans’s friend.
The detective has denied making the comments about the friend not having to cooperate, the letter said.
Evans was an aspiring actress and a college student when Weinstein approached her at a New York nightclub, she told The New Yorker last year. She met him at his office during the daytime, she told The New Yorker, and that is when Weinstein forced her head down to perform oral sex on him, despite her objections.
I'm just going to take a break here to tell you how sick I am of reading this filth in my elite pre$$, as the whole ruling cla$$ is riddled with predation and perversion. This Weinstein stuff serves a purpose in that it gets the media lens off -- if it was ever really on -- the underaged sex abuse that is also rampant in that cesspool out there.
Even though the charge regarding Evans was dismissed, Weinstein still faces five other charges in connection with assaults against two women — one in 2013 and the other in 2006. The remaining charges include two counts of predatory sexual assault, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
In court Thursday, Joan Illuzzi, the lead prosecutor in the case, said the dismissal of the charge involving Evans would not “affect the strength of the larger case.”
How can it not, especially if Weinstein's lawyers unearth more communications or further witnesses come forward?
I mean, if his name were Kavanaugh......
Illuzzi added that prosecutors were continuing to investigate allegations against Weinstein, telling Justice James Burke, “In short, your honor, we are moving full-speed ahead.”
Took a year to get up to speed after the open secret was exposed.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault, and have said they were attacked after being lured to his office or to hotel rooms with the impression they would discuss potential acting roles. The flurry of accusations spurred the global #MeToo movement. Women have since publicly shared their experiences of sexual harassment and assault by powerful men in the workplace.
That's the thing; this scum demonstrated a pattern of repetition.
Weinstein has denied wrongdoing and maintains that the relationships with his numerous accusers were consensual.
In court, his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, argued that the dismissal of the charge related to Evans had “tainted” the prosecution’s entire case. Citing the friend’s contradictory account, Brafman said that Evans had perjured herself in the grand jury. He also claimed that by failing to report the friend’s story to the district attorney’s office, DiGaudio had “attempted to influence the integrity of the proceedings.”
Baby, bathwater, Ford.
Brafman told Burke that he plans on issuing a subpoena to DiGaudio seeking all of the interviews he conducted with witnesses in the case.
Outside of court, Brafman told reporters that the district attorney’s office had charged Weinstein before it fully understood the accusations against him. “When you do your homework after the arrest,” he said, “bad things happen.”
In August, Weinstein’s defense team sought to discredit another of the producer’s accusers, pointing to hundreds of e-mails that suggested the relationship was consensual and lasted for years after the alleged attack.
So you do a blow job and get a part?
Weinstein had been accused of raping the woman, who has not been identified, inside a hotel room at the Doubletree Inn in Midtown in March 2013. The e-mails were made public in a motion filed by Brafman in which he argued the charges should be dismissed because prosecutors had withheld the evidence from the grand jury.
I'm sure Harvey appreciates the effort, but he should know that the government doesn't have to present exculpatory evidence in a grand jury proceeding. They only need to prove a preponderance of evidence for an indictment.
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I sure hope the Times isn't in trouble for reporting that:
"Newsweek’s former owner is charged in $10 million fraud" by William K. Rashbaum and Patricia Cohen New York Times October 12, 2018
NEW YORK — Newsweek magazine, the onetime media powerhouse, was at the center of a multimillion-dollar fraud and money-laundering conspiracy, according to an indictment by Manhattan prosecutors that was unsealed Wednesday.
Two publishing companies, IBT Media, which owned the magazine, and Christian Media, a faith-based online publisher in Washington, were charged with trying to defraud lenders by pretending to borrow money for sophisticated computing services.
Instead, most of the money was funneled back to accounts controlled by the two media companies and their principals — Etienne Uzac, a cofounder of IBT, and William Anderson, Christian Media’s former chief executive and publisher — and unnamed coconspirators, the indictment said. It said some of the money had been used to cover the magazine’s operating expenses.
Why unnamed?
Expect to see more of this as the legacy media implodes.
The men were charged with misrepresenting Newsweek’s financial health and creating a fictitious accounting firm, Karen Smith LLP, along with a series of fake financial statements to dupe lenders into putting up millions of dollars in 2015 and 2016. Oikos Networks, a computer company, was also named in the indictment, charged with providing fewer, lower-quality computers than the expensive ones on invoices.
In light of the recent stock market downswing and anniversary of the Grand Depression, not good.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office brought the charges after an extended investigation into the companies’ financial dealings that included a raid of IBT’s Manhattan offices in January. Top editors and reporters at Newsweek were fired after they, too, started delving into the company’s accounts and the owners’ connections to Olivet University, an evangelical Christian college in New York.
Related: Newsweek fires editors and reporter who investigated the company
The pre$$ closes ranks!
Uzac defended himself Wednesday on IBT’s website, accusing the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., of retaliating against his news organization for reporting last fall on a campaign contribution to Vance from the lawyer for Harvey Weinstein, the powerful film producer.
Uzac added: “The firestorm that ensued badly bruised the DA’s office, led to his office to be investigated by the New York attorney general and almost cost him his re-election.”
In May, Vance brought charges of rape and criminal sexual acts against Weinstein in cases involving two women.
After he had ignored doing so for years.
Come to think of it, the NYT here also sat on the story for over a decade and only "discovered" it when the New Yorker was going to run it and embarrass them.
Uzac’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said in a statement that his client “strongly denies these baseless charges.”
“It is undisputed that no one lost money,” he added. “We contend no one was defrauded and the DA’s case is made up, untrue, and will be soundly repudiated.”
I wish I could say that hasn't happened before, but.....
Anderson’s lawyer, Andrew Lanker, denied that his client had engaged in wrongdoing.
IBT bought Newsweek in 2013. Last year, the company changed its name to Newsweek Media Group.
After the indictment was unsealed Wednesday, the magazine issued a statement noting that Newsweek Media Group had split into two companies — Newsweek, which controls the print and digital versions, and IBT Media, which runs the International Business Times, Fashion Times, Medical Daily, and other publications.
And I don't read any of them.
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"Driver in crash that killed Broadway actress’s 4-year-old daughter charged" Associated Press May 04, 2018
NEW YORK — A woman who had a seizure behind the wheel of her car, which then rolled into a Brooklyn crosswalk, killing the 4-year-old daughter of a Tony-award winning actress and a 1-year-old boy, was arrested on manslaughter charges Thursday for deaths that prosecutors said should never have happened.
See: Tony-award winning actress injured; daughter killed in wreck
Just two months before the March crash, prosecutors said, a medical episode caused the woman to drive into a parked car. She then had a seizure while hospitalized and was told by a doctor not to drive for one year — advice that was repeated during two follow-up appointments.
Despite those instructions, 44-year-old Dorothy Bruns was involved in a fender bender on Jan. 20 and left the scene, according to prosecutors. Then, on March 5, Bruns suffered another seizure while stopped at a red light in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The car rolled into the crosswalk, striking actress Ruthie Ann Blumenstein and her 4-year-old daughter, Abigail, and Lauren Lew and her 1-year-old son, Joshua. Both children were killed.
Bruns was arrested Thursday at her Staten Island home. She pleaded not guilty in a Brooklyn court to charges that included manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and reckless driving.
A call to Bruns’s attorney was not immediately returned. She was ordered held on $75,000 bond and faces 15 years in prison if convicted on the top charge.
‘‘Her alleged insistence on driving despite doctor’s orders and serious medical conditions that prevented her from safely doing so was not only irresponsible, it was unlawful,’’ District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.....
Yeah, because under de Blasio, the streets have been swept clean and ferry service expanded.
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I know this is out of their jurisdiction, but maybe they could investigate this:
20 dead in N.Y. when limo on way to birthday party blows stop sign
Limo Crash Kills 20 in Upstate New York
The Globe did looked both ways before:
"Firm that owned limo in deadly crash repeatedly failed inspections" New York Times October 08, 2018
The company that provided the limousine that crashed in upstate New York on Saturday, killing 20 people, had repeatedly failed motor vehicle inspections and the driver did not have a proper license, according to state officials and federal transportation records. One victim expressed concerns about the limousine in a text sent shortly before the crash, relatives and friends said.
One friend said she got a text from one of the victims, Erin McGowan, telling her that a party bus that was supposed to pick up the group of friends to take them to a brewery had broken down on the way there.
Instead, the group obtained a stretch limousine, which was in shoddy condition, McGowan told her friend, using a profanity to describe the vehicle.
I try not to these days, and usually couch the term by leaving out a letter or two.
The friend, Melissa Healey, 33, who had been the maid of honor at McGowan’s wedding this summer, shared the texts with The New York Times.
“The motor is making everyone deaf,” wrote McGowan, before Healey asked from where they rented the car.
McGowan responded that she wasn’t sure, but then added, “When we get to brewery we will all b deaf.”
They never made it.
The company that rented the vehicle was Prestige Limousine, a small company doing business out of Gansevoort, N.Y., a town north of Albany, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who briefed the news media about the investigation Monday. A review of federal transportation records shows that the company, which had three vehicles, had failed inspections, though the records did not provide details about the failures.
Cuomo said that the driver, who has not been identified by authorities, “did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating that vehicle.”
The governor also said that the limousine involved in the accident had been inspected last month and failed that inspection and “was not supposed to be on the road,” but he cautioned that the cause of the accident had not been determined, noting they were looking at both mechanical malfunction and driver error. The state has already issued a cease-and-desist order to prevent Prestige Limousine from operating.
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What caught my attention was the authorities' emphasis on accident as well as not having the cause.
"Limousine in crash that killed 20 failed inspection last month" Associated Press October 08, 2018
SCHOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) — The supersized limousine that crashed and killed 20 people outside a country store failed a safety inspection last month and shouldn’t have been on the road, and the driver wasn’t properly licensed, New York’s governor said Monday.
The state moved to shut down the owner, Prestige Limousine, as state and federal authorities investigated the cause of Saturday’s wreck in Schoharie.
The crash about 170 miles north of New York City came three years after another deadly stretch-limo wreck in New York state spurred calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to examine such vehicles’ safety. There is no evidence the state took any steps to do so.
As victims’ relatives tried to come to grips with the tragedy that happened as a group of friends and family were on their way to a 30th birthday party, authorities had yet to say how fast the limo was going or determine what caused it to run a stop sign.
The 19-seater vehicle had at least some seat belts, but it was unclear whether anyone was wearing them, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.
Investigators plan to examine the mangled limo’s data recorders and mechanical systems as well as the road, which has a history as a danger spot. They are also looking into the driver’s record and qualifications and conducting an autopsy to see if drugs or alcohol were factors, but officials already saw some red flags, Cuomo said: The driver didn’t have the necessary commercial license, and the vehicle failed a state inspection that examined such things as the chassis, suspension and brakes.
‘‘In my opinion, the owner of this company had no business putting a failed vehicle on the road,’’ the governor said while attending a Columbus Day Parade in New York City. ‘‘Prestige has a lot of questions to answer.’’
He also said the limo — built by cutting apart a heavy-duty SUV and lengthening it — had been created without federal certification, though NTSB officials said they hadn’t yet determined whether the vehicle met federal standards.
A call to Prestige Limousine’s office in Gansevoort went unanswered. Federal records show the company has undergone five inspections in the past two years and had four vehicles pulled from service. State police said Monday that they seized three other cars from Prestige.
Federal transportation records show Prestige is owned by Shahed Hussain, who worked as an informant for the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks, infiltrating Muslim groups by posing as a terrorist sympathizer in at least three investigations. In one case, he helped convict men accused of plotting to bomb New York synagogues.
This is now getting interesting.
His role at the FBI was assailed by civil liberties groups, who accused him of helping the FBI entrap people.
Asked Monday about Hussain, the FBI said it would not confirm or deny who is or is not an informant.
The limousine, built from a 2001 Ford Excursion, ran a stop sign at a T-shaped intersection at the bottom of a hill and slammed into an unoccupied SUV at the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe, a popular stop for autumn leaf-peepers.
Going to have to skip that this year, and as a resident I never really cared for the splendor. I gotta rake 'em.
Investigators have yet to determine whether the driver, whose name has not been released, tried to brake. The wreck left no skid marks investigators could see, but that might be due to misty weather or anti-lock brakes, Sumwalt said.
Is that the "theory?"
The wreck killed two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limousine, including four sisters who were headed with friends and relatives to a brewery for a party for one of the sisters.
The four sisters’ aunt, Barbara Douglas, said they had felt ‘‘they did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn’t have to drive anywhere.’’
‘‘My heart is sunken. It’s in a place where I’ve never felt this type of pain before,’’ said Karina Halse, who lost her 26-year-old sister Amanda.
A vigil was planned Monday night in Amsterdam, where some victims lived.
The crash appeared to be the deadliest land-vehicle accident in the U.S. since a bus full of Texas nursing home patients fleeing 2005’s Hurricane Rita caught fire, killing 23. Saturday’s wreck was the nation’s deadliest transportation accident of any kind since a 2009 plane crash near Buffalo, New York, killed 50 people.
That crash had a 9/11 truther on it.
Limousines built in factories are required to meet stringent safety regulations, but luxury cars that have been converted to limos like the one in Saturday’s crash often lack certain safety components, such as side-impact air bags, reinforced rollover protection bars and accessible emergency exits.
There are few federal regulations governing limos that have been modified after leaving the factory. Regulations often vary by state and even local governments.
‘‘It certainly is the Wild West out there when it comes to limousines and stretch vehicles,’’ said National Safety Council CEO Deborah A.P. Hersman, who would like to see uniform state limousine regulations across the nation.
Is that the point of whatever this is, or is it just not letting a good opportunity go to waste, to coin a phrase from Rahm and Condi.
This is starting to have a pungent smell to it.
Ford said it has never made its own stretch version of the Excursion SUV. The automaker has a program that certifies companies that modify vehicles to Ford specifications, but it was unclear whether the limo in Saturday’s crash was altered by one of those companies.
Large-limo wrecks are relatively few: 12 nationwide between 2012 and 2016, compared with over 157,000 crashes involving all types of vehicles during that period, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but some big-limo wrecks caught the public’s attention and prompted pleas for more oversight.
Five women out for a bachelorette party were killed in 2013 when their stretch limo caught fire in Northern California because of friction between the drive shaft and the rear floorboard.
After Comedian Tracy Morgan was seriously injured in a truck-limo van crash in New Jersey in 2014, the NTSB recommended the limousine industry encourage seat belt use in stretch limos, among other suggestions.
That turned out to be somewhat of a hoax, according to my Hollywood gossip site.
After a stretch limousine was T-boned and nearly torn in half on New York’s Long Island in 2015 — killing four women on a winery tour — a special grand jury implored Cuomo to examine the safety of such vehicles.
It appears the task force was never formed, and nearly three years after the grand jury’s recommendation, it was unclear what, if anything, Cuomo’s administration did in response.
‘‘I don’t know if there was a task force set up,’’ the governor said Monday, while suggesting that Saturday’s crash didn’t necessarily point to a need for more regulation.
‘‘Sometimes, people just don’t follow the law’’ that already exists, he said. ‘‘And that may very well be what happened here.’’
He is repeating history in the sense that he is out there making the same pronouncements as he did years ago -- kind of like me writing the same things over and over on this blog.
The important thing is the initial impression and public perception, not any actual change. Then go collect your salary, health benefits, and pension.
The New York grand jury report recommended state lawmakers require stretch limousines that seat nine or more passengers to meet the stricter inspection regulations that apply to buses.
Lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, asked federal officials several years ago to implement higher safety standards for stretch limos modified after leaving the manufacturer.
Obama ignored him, 'eh?
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Finally, the light changed:
"Limo driver’s family believes he was given an unsafe vehicle" by Michael Hill Associated Press October 09, 2018
SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — Relatives of the limousine driver involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York said Tuesday that they believe he was unwittingly assigned an unsafe vehicle.
The family of Scott Lisinicchia released a statement through a lawyer shortly after another attorney representing the limousine company, Prestige Limousine, said the driver might have been unfamiliar with the rural road.
Lisinicchia was driving the limousine that ran through a stop sign Saturday at the bottom of a T-intersection on a rural road 25 miles west of Albany. Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo celebrating a woman’s birthday died.
The statement from Lisinicchia’s lawyer said he would never have ‘‘knowingly put others in harm’s way’’ and cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
‘‘The family believes that unbeknownst to him he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe for any of its occupants,’’ according to the statement from Grant & Longworth.
Prestige Limousine has been criticized for maintaining vehicles rife with violations and for employing a driver lacking a commercial license. The deadly crash also has shined fresh light on the controversial history of the business owner, a former FBI informant.
Federal transportation records show Prestige is owned by Shahed Hussain, who worked as an informant for the FBI after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. He infiltrated Muslim groups by posing as a terrorist sympathizer in at least three investigations.
State Police said Shahed Hussain is in Pakistan. On Monday his son, Nauman Hussain, who has operated the limo company, met with State Police investigators for several hours, according to the Albany newspaper. Kindlon declined to comment on the interview to the newspaper. He did not return calls seeking comment from The Associated Press.
Can I see your license and registration, please?
In 2014, Nauman Hussain and his brother were accused by police of insisting they were each other after a traffic stop. Nauman Hussain was the passenger, but had a valid license. His brother did not. Police later discovered Nauman had an extensive suspension and conviction list which had been cleared, according to the Times Union.
Prestige’s address is listed as a modest motel outside Saratoga Springs that is owned by Hussain, according to tax records.
Nearby residents complained to town code enforcement officials several times in recent years about the condition of Hussain’s property.
In spring 2017, the state health officials shut down the motel and its low-income residents were forced to temporarily move out after a sewer line failed. The owner claimed a disgruntled former tenant sabotaged the infrastructure, but a building inspector blamed the problem on improper fittings and lack of support for the waste lines.
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Someone thinks ‘‘the state has been warned about that intersection for years and the Department of Transportation is just looking to point a finger,’’ and they may well be right about the scapegoating.
"Limo firm’s operator is charged after fatal upstate N.Y. crash" by Jesse McKinley and William K. Rashbaum New York Times October 10, 2018
ALBANY, N.Y. — The operator of a limousine company at the center of an investigation of the crash in upstate New York that killed 20 people was arrested Wednesday and charged with criminally negligent homicide, according to the State Police.
Nauman Hussain, the son of Shahed Hussain, the owner of Prestige Limousine, was taken into custody during a traffic stop in the Albany area.
I'm sure there is some irony there.
The arrest came four days after a stretch limousine, rented out by Prestige, ran through a stop sign in Schoharie, a town about 40 miles west of Albany, struck two pedestrians and a parked car, and landed in a shallow ravine. All 17 passengers and the limousine’s driver were killed, as were two pedestrians.
The arrest is the latest development in a fast-moving investigation focusing on the limousine — a 2001 Ford Excursion — that had repeatedly failed inspections, including one as recently as last month.
The company, which was doing business out of a low-budget hotel north of Albany, has been visited multiple times by State Police investigators, who are also seeking the elder Hussain, a former FBI informant.
I would be very surprised if he were extradited from Pakistan, given the strained relations we have with them.
The crash on Saturday was the worst transportation-related accident in the country in nine years, dating to a 2009 plane crash outside Buffalo that killed 50 people.
Among the victims Saturday were 17 young friends — all between the ages of 24 and 34 — who had been traveling in the limousine for a birthday party trip at a local brewery.
I just can't help but feel that alcohol had a factor.
In remarks to reporters outside a State Police barracks Wednesday afternoon, a lawyer for the limousine company, Lee Kindlon, said the State Police and other authorities were “jumping the gun” in charging Nauman Hussain, 28. “Even the most simple investigation, done well, takes months,” Kindlon said, adding that his client would plead not guilty. “And now because of the actions taken today, that time frame is compressed.”
Kindlon said Hussain had met on Monday with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, State Police, and state Transportation Department and was asked to turn over certain documents about the company and the vehicle. The process of collecting those materials was underway, Kindlon said, when he received a “panicked call” from his client’s family at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, telling him Hussain was being arrested.
The crash has also raised questions about the regulation of stretch limousines, specially made vehicles built from former cars or sport utility vehicles that often do not have to meet strict federal safety requirements. While drivers of such elongated vehicles are required to wear seat belts, passengers in the back are not.
State Police have made clear they would like to interview the older Hussain, 62. He has a curious history, having worked as an informant, helping to convict two leaders of an Albany mosque in a 2004 plot to import a missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat, as well as a case in 2009 involving a conspiracy to bomb synagogues in the Bronx. In both cases, the attacks were thwarted, but his record is also filled with criminal acts, including fraudulently obtaining driver’s licenses, and financial troubles — he filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003 after accumulating debts of $177,000. The bankruptcy case was settled in 2007.
He wouldn't be the guy who entrapped those fellas in Newburgh, would he?
A year later, his family started Prestige Limousine.
On Wednesday, Kindlon said Hussain had been in Pakistan for some time to deal with health issues. He said the older Hussain had been much more involved in the day-to-day running of the company than his son, who he said mainly helped market the company and answer business calls.
He also suggested that state officials should have addressed the road where the crash happened, which residents had long said was dangerous.....
Yeah, well, you know. I'm sure they had a pre$$er where they looked good at one point, and then down the ravine it goes.
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You know, a lot of people are asking questions about what exactly happened and the lack of broken glass does raise a red flag.
At least the informant is in Pakistan and not Egypt:
"American terror suspect allegedly tortured in Egypt" Washington Post October 12, 2018
CAIRO— An American citizen accused of joining the Islamic State was detained by Egyptian authorities and held in secret for four months in a prison where he was allegedly tortured and raped, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
Sort of a shoe on the other foot kind of thing?
Related: US student detained in Israel for alleged boycott support
Hey, Saudi Arabia cuts them up before disappearing them so don't expect any help from Trump.
At least we got our guy back in one piece.
The watchdog group said Egyptian national security agents arrested and ‘‘forcibly disappeared’’ Khaled Hassan, 41, a limousine driver from New York, on Jan. 8 in the coastal city of Alexandria. Hassan was born in Egypt and became a naturalized American several years ago, the group said.
Is that freaky or what!?
In the following weeks, security forces ‘‘severely beat him, gave him electric shocks including on his genitals, and raped him in at least two incidents, once with a wooden stick and once by another man,’’ Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
I wish I could believe him, but he's not a woman so.....
Egyptian authorities, responding to a letter sent by the group, denied the allegations of torture, but the rights group said independent forensic experts reviewed footage of Hassan’s wounds and found them consistent with torture. The group urged Egyptian prosecutors to open an investigation into the torture claims.
Yeah, the torturers are going to investigate themselves.
Despite efforts by Hassan’s family to get information about his whereabouts from Egyptian authorities immediately after his disappearance, it was not until May 3 that they learned of his imprisonment. Egyptian authorities told Human Rights Watch that Hassan was arrested that day.
They got a tip from Interpol.
That was also when Hassan appeared before a military prosecutor and was accused, along with hundreds of others, of joining the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt’s volatile northern Sinai province to spy on the army and plot attacks.
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You know, there are other Waze of getting around.
UPDATE:
FBI says New York man planned to detonate 200-pound bomb on Election Day on the National Mall
Prosecutors said Paul Rosenfeld planned to use the bomb to kill himself and draw attention to a political system called sortition, in which public officials are chosen randomly rather than elected.
