Authorities aim to avoid media circus when bailed film director leaves jail
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 November 2009 14.58 GMT
- Article history
The Swiss chalet which reportedly belongs to the US film director Roman Polanski. Photograph: Thomas Kienzle/AP
The film director Roman Polanski will be placed under house arrest at his Alpine chalet as soon as possible, the Swiss justice ministry said today, announcing it would not appeal against a court decision to release him on bail.
The ministry said it was still deciding whether to extradite the 76-year-old to the United States, where authorities in Los Angeles want him sentenced for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
The ministry said, however, that it would not appeal against a Swiss criminal court decision granting Polanski $4.5m (£2.7m) bail on the condition that he wear an electronic bracelet and not leave his Gstaad chalet. Polanski must also surrender his identity documents.
"He must not leave this house," the ministry said in a statement. Should he violate the terms of release, the bail will be forfeited to the Swiss government."
Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said the release would be handled quietly: "We don't want to show him off like an exotic animal," he told The Associated Press.
Polanski was accused of raping the girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modelling shoot in 1977. He was initially charged with six offences, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.
In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sentence him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. The evaluator released Polanski after 42 days, but the judge said he was going to send him back to serve out the 90 days.
Polanski fled the US on 1 February 1978, the day he was to be sentenced, and has lived in France since.
The court last month rejected Polanski's first bail offer, with his Gstaad chalet as collateral. Before yesterday's decision, Polanski offered a bank guarantee that would cause him to sacrifice his family's home in Paris if he fled justice again.
"I am very happy and relieved," Mathilde Seigner, Polanski's sister-in-law, told Le Parisien newspaper, adding that the director's imprisonment had had "enormous consequences on a psychological level" for his children. After Polanski's release, "we're going to drink a nice glass of champagne and toast together", she said.
Tracy Barker says she was raped in Iraq by a US state department employee while working as a civilian contractor
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 November 2009 20.55 GMT
- Article history
An arbitrator has awarded a woman nearly $3m (£1.8m) to settle her claims that she was raped in Iraq by a US state department employee in 2005 while working for a former Halliburton subsidiary.
Court records filed this week show Tracy Barker was awarded $2.93m to settle her claim against military contractor KBR.
Barker had sued Houston-based Halliburton and its former KBR subsidiary in May 2007, alleging she was sexually attacked while working as a civilian contractor in Basra, Iraq.
The Associated Press doesn't usually identify those who report they were sexually assaulted, but Barker made her identity public in her lawsuit.
Lawyer alleges collusion between Britain and US over ill-treatment of prisoners, including sexual humiliation
- The Guardian, Saturday 14 November 2009
- Article history
The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night that it is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse, including rape and torture of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers.
One claimant alleges that he was raped by two British soldiers, while others claim they were stripped naked, abused and photographed. Female soldiers are also alleged to have taken part in abuse.
A pre-action protocol letter was served on the Ministry of Defence last week by Phil Shiner, the lawyer representing the Iraqis, according to the Independent.
In the letter to the MoD, reported in the newspaper, Shiner said the allegations raised questions of collusion between Britain and the US over the ill-treatment of Iraqis. "Given the history of the UK's involvement in the development of these techniques alongside the US, it is deeply concerning that there appears to be strong similarities between instances of the use of sexual humiliation," said Shiner.
Responding to the allegations, Bill Rammell, the armed forces minister, said: "Over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast majority have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment. Only a tiny number of individuals have been shown to have fallen short of our high standards. Allegations of this nature are taken very seriously, however allegations must not be taken as fact and investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgments being made prematurely."
The Guardian reported in September that the Royal Military police had launched a criminal investigation into allegations that British soldiers repeatedly raped and mutilated an 18-year-old Iraqi civilian who was working as a labourer at Camp Breadbasket in Basra, the scene of other abuse allegations.
The man who wishes to remain unnamed alleged that two soldiers raped him, subjecting him to a 15-minute ordeal, then slashed him with a knife. He was treated in hospital for cuts and the military police are understood to have secured the medical records. The victim said he was so traumatised he tried to kill himself.
Shiner also represents Baha Mousa, 26, an Iraqi who died after being taken into UK military custody. Mousa and nine other civilians were arrested at a hotel in Basra in September 2003. The father-of-two died the following day, having suffered 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.
Corporal Donald Payne became the first member of the British armed forces to be convicted of a war crime when he pleaded guilty at a court martial in September 2006 to inhumanely treating civilians. He was dismissed from the army and sentenced to one year in a civilian jail.
At the ongoing public inquiry into Mousa's death, a former British soldier admitted for the first time that he saw Payne and Private Aaron Cooper kicking and hitting the Iraqi shortly before he died. Garry Reader told a hearing on Monday how he had tried to resuscitate Mousa.
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 October 2009 20.46 BST
- Article history
A former magistrate who spent two years in jail before being cleared of rape has lost his legal battle to sue his accuser for £300,000 damages.
Anthony Hunt, 66, from Dorset, was jailed for four years in 2003, but had his conviction quashed on appeal in 2005. His initial attempt to sue his accuser for malicious prosecution failed last October after a high court judge ruled that the woman, known as AB, was not the prosecutor. Today the court of appeal upheld that decision, in a ruling which underlined the role of the crown as prosecutor in protecting key witnesses from damage claims. Women's rights groups greeted it with "a huge sigh of relief".
If Hunt's claim had succeeded it could have cleared the way for alleged victims of unwitnessed crimes to be personally sued for damages in cases where defendants were acquitted.
Anna Mills, a solicitor acting for AB, said yesterday that her client "feels vindicated by the decision". She said: "Before Lovells [law firm] agreed to assist AB with this case she had personally spent in excess of £60,000 defending Mr Hunt's claim. She has suffered more than 14 years of severe psychological and emotional trauma."
• Labourer says he was assaulted at Basra army camp in 2003
• Alleged victim's lawyers plan to sue the government
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 September 2009 23.21 BST
- Article history
The Royal Military police have launched a criminal investigation into allegations that British soldiers repeatedly raped and mutilated an Iraqi civilian, the Guardian has learned.
Next week, lawyers for the man will issue legal proceedings against the government in the British civil courts. Their barrister is Sir Ken Macdonald QC, who was the top prosecutor in England and Wales until last year. The government has ordered an investigation into the claims, but is refusing to hold an independent inquiry.
The man was working for the British army as a labourer at Camp Breadbasket in Basra, the scene of other abuse allegations. In May 2003, he was caught up in a raid to catch people stealing supplies.
He alleges that two soldiers raped him, subjecting him to a 15-minute ordeal, then slashed his arms and body with a knife. He was treated in hospital for the cuts and the Royal Military police are understood to have secured the medical records. The victim was 18 at the time and said he was so traumatised he tried to kill himself.
The man does not want his real name to be known but is called Samir in his witness statement. He claims he was attacked after accidentally entering a room where two male soldiers were engaged in a sexual act. His witness statement says: "The room was fairly small, perhaps about four metres by four metres."
He says one soldier pulled him into the room and punched him in the face, while another blocked the exit: "The man who had punched me was stronger than me, he grabbed me by the neck and kicked my legs from under me and I fell to the floor. I fell on my back. He took out a knife and held it against my neck … I was terrified that they were going to kill me at this point. The other soldier started to rip my trousers down … I started screaming. He then pulled my underwear down. All this time the other man was holding me down and putting the knife against my throat. They then flipped me on to my stomach."
Samir says both soldiers then took it in turn to rape him, then slashed him with the knife, leaving him in "unbearable" agony. He says he left the room and other soldiers helped him to get medical attention for the knife wounds.
His solicitor, Daniel Carey, says witnesses confirm the victim was taken into a room by British soldiers, only to return looking distressed.
Carey also said: "The psychiatrist's, conclusions were that he was suffering from depression, post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety as a result of the incident. We also interviewed two other Iraqis who were present with [the victim] at the base and saw him enter the room where he says he was raped and witnessed his distress and injuries following the attack."In the witness statement, Samir says: "It fills me with such shame to talk about this, even with my solicitors. I have broken down telling them of what happened."
Samir said he had not told his wife or family what allegedly happened to him.
Mazin Younis interviewed the man for the Iraqi League, a human rights group, and said: "Because the shame of rape in the conservative culture of Iraq is so pervasive, most Iraqis you talk to tell you they would much prefer death. It took immense bravery on the part of Samir to come forward and talk.
"Samir was not an insurgent. He was never a member of the Ba'ath party. He was simply accused of being a thief in a war-torn country, and now he must live with the trauma of rape for the rest of his life."
The British government, in letters seen by the Guardian, is trying to have the legal case struck out. It says the fact the victim waited six years to make his claim means he has not brought his case in time.
Carey said: "I deplore the government's cynicism in seeking to avoidany accountability by relying on technical rules of the court about the delay in bringing the claim."
The armed forces minister, Bill Rammell, said: "Allegations must not be taken as fact and formal investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgments being made prematurely."
Phillip Garrido is a God-fearing Christian fanatic who speaks in tongues, can control things with his mind and who wrote this bizarre blog.
He also kidnapped Jaycee Dugard when she was 11, raped her, kept her prisoner in his backyard and impregnated her twice.
Truly scary.
