Posted on 12/02/2002 10:10:36 AM PST by tracer
Reported five minutes ago -- no ther details yet found..
Truth bump....forced confession under duress.
According to whom? Ted or Ted's wife? Who,exactly, is saying he doesn't stand by the confession?
It was a forced confession....after being told, I believe, he had to fear for his wife's safety......ask Fred Mertz or Phil Dragoo
Thanks, I have a lot of respect for Dunne, and will look for his writings on the subject. Meanwhile, I will continue to make fun of people who claim to have evidence, yet fail to present it.
And how would they know?
There. They've made me see the light. I won't believe anybody who says that someone is guilty of a crime ever again.
Now I gotta start up some websites for Manson. Maybe even a justice crusade for Bundy, Gacy, Starkweather, etc.
he has not been allowed to see family, he has not been allowed to correspond with family others about the trial,
Yet somehow you know that his confession was coerced. How do you know this if he hasn't been allowed to talk to anybody?
No common sense allowed. Everything is a plot.
Even though he CONFESSED to setting the fire. What does that tell you?
My original email:
Subject: Ted Mahar, Monaco
I've been searching Amnesty International's site for word on any actions possibly being taken by Amnesty International, on behalf of Green Beret veteran and neonatal nurse, Ted Mahar, who has been held in Monaco, without a trial, since the assassination of millionaire Edmond Safra in December, 1999.
It is my understanding that there is no evidence to convict Mr. Mahar, and that his "confession" was given under duress and also possibly under the influence of drugs.
Mr. Mahar has undergone both physical and psychological torture.
Has Amnesty International in the past, or does Amnesty International intend in the future, to work on Ted Mahar's behalf and hopefully obtain his freedom?
Sincerely, (me)
Their answer:
Amnesty works against torture, wherever it occurs. The case itself, though, would probably not be something AI would take up (we are not usually involved with criminal cases, even when someone might have been wrongfully convicted).
thanks for writing us about this
...Note to All: remember this reply when AI says anything else about the prisoners at Gitmo.
By JOHN LEICESTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONTE CARLO, Monaco- An American male nurse was convicted Monday in the 1999 arson deaths of billionaire banker Edmond Safra and a nurse, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Ted Maher was convicted of arson leading to death. The fire in this wealthy Mediterranean enclave also killed one of Safra's other nurses, Vivian Torrente.
The prosecution had requested 12 years in prison for Maher in closing arguments earlier Monday. The charges carried a maximum penalty of life in prison.
"He directly caused the deaths of Mrs. Torrente and Mr. Safra," said head prosecutor Daniel Serdet. "He trapped the victims."
The defense had said Maher - who admitted setting the fire - did not intend for Safra and the nurse to die. His intention was merely to trigger the fire alarm and pose as Safra's rescuer.
"Stupidity is reprehensible, but it is not a crime," Sandrine Setton, one of the defense lawyers, said in closing arguments.
Setton argued the charge against Maher should be reduced to involuntary manslaughter.
Maher has been held in Monaco's prison for the last three years.
The fire and trial have been a sensation in Monaco, which prides itself with providing a safe, security and luxurious environment for the rich and famous in this Mediterranean enclave.
For most of Monday's session, Maher sat still in the dock, looking gaunt and tired as he listened to a translation of the proceedings from French into English. Toward the end of the day, he gave a tearful final word in his own defense.
He called Safra "the best employer I ever had," and said he did not mean to cause his death or the death of the other nurse.
"What's happened is and always will be a terrible accident," said the former Green Beret, reiterating earlier testimony, in the hours before the verdict.
Maher's wife was in court, as was Safra's widow.
Safra, the 67-year-old founder and principal stock owner of the Republic National Bank of New York, had Parkinson's disease and required constant care.
He paid Maher $600 a day. Maher, originally from Auburn, Maine, told prosecutors it was "the most beautiful job" he had ever had.
But Maher also said Safra's chief nurse belittled him and he feared losing his job. Just six weeks after arriving in Monaco, he hatched the idea of setting the fire to ingratiate himself with his boss and earn a promotion.
In testimony, Maher called the Dec. 3, 1999, blaze a "terrible accident" and said he never meant to harm his employer.
Lawyers for Safra's widow, Lily, say Maher should be judged for his actions, not his intentions.
On Monday, the prosecutor described how Maher cut himself with a knife and then set a fire in a wastepaper basket. He called for rescue and told authorities that two masked intruders were in the apartment.
But rather than extinguish the fire, Maher let it spread, the prosecution charged, leading to the two deaths. Prosecutors also said that his tale about intruders delayed the work of firefighters.
How the confession was obtained and maintained. Monaco used methods of interrogation forbidden by the Israeli Supreme Court to its General Security Service:
Nine Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled September 6, 1999, that the interrogation methods of the General Security Service which involve the use of physical force are not legal. The GSS does not have the authority, for example, to shake a suspect, to hold him in painful positions for a lengthy period, or to deprive him of sleep.
Monaco held Ted in four-point restraint, catheterized, sleep-deprived for three days to force him to sign their false confession; The U.S. Consul visiting Ted December 8, 1999 noted facial bruising; The official documents note bruising of the occipital region--Ted was hit on the back of the head;
Bruising of the toes--always a favorite: the hammer; Before this "special treatment" Ted was clear in his account of two armed intruders; And Monaco had detained and questioned two Middle Eastern men in the parking garage beneath the penthouse;
Lily's friends brought Heidi to Monaco; once in Lily's car supposedly headed for the hospital to see Ted, the car went to the police station; Monaco used three strangers in black jumpsuits to grab Heidi and her brother off the sidewalk in front of the police station--
With Heidi's U.S. passport Monaco could now threaten Ted with her strip-searching, torture and indefinite detainment;
And Monaco displayed secretly-taken photos of the couple's children in their rural New York home neighborhood;
And played secretly-recorded tapes of the children's voices;
Voila, Monaco extorts Ted's signature on their typed prepared false confession in French which Ted does not read, write or speak.
When Ted attempts to speak of the details of the night in question in his ONE phone call a week to Heidi and his family, the line goes dead;
Ted's mail is blocked: even his children's cards are torn up before him by judge d'instruction Patricia Richet; As she screams, "I know you will be found guilty!"
His Monaco-paid pre-tend de-fenders the pickled Georges Blot and the saccharine and glutinous Donald Manasse force him to adhere to the false confession;
Through the corte d'kangaroo this bizarre Kafka folly continues: the sleep deprivation: awakened every 20 to 40 minutes;
The pair of pretender defenders forcing him to adhere to the false confession--their alternative of course is life imprisonment; . . .
See more on this thread: Free Ted Maher
See post #2,208, among many others.
It tells you that the confession was coerced, apparently.
However, the same people who say that his confession was coerced say that Maher has not been allowed to talk to anybody. How they can reconcile those two positions, I am still trying to figure out.
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