Tommy Robinson Free After Winning Appeal

The Middle East Forum applauds the release of Tommy Robinson from prison this morning, after the UK anti-Islamist activist won his appeal over a contempt of court sentence.

In June, Mr. Robinson, a long-time target of UK authorities, was covering a rape-gang trial involving Muslim defendants in England when he was arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to 13 months prison, and jailed – all in the course of five hours, all while denied access to counsel.

The full resources of the Middle East Forum were activated to free Mr. Robinson. We:

Conferred with his legal team and made funding available to them;

Funded, organized and staffed the large “Free Tommy” London rallies on June 9 and July 14 (see The Times, The Guardian, and the Independent);

Funded travel by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to London to address the rally; and

Urged Sam Brownback, the State Department’s ambassador for International Religious Freedom, to raise the issue with the UK’s ambassador.

What precisely happened: In an extraordinary decision, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales - the head of the judiciary in England and Wales, roughly equivalent to the American chief justice of the Supreme Court - himself wrote a judgment rejecting the kangaroo-court verdict that had Tommy Robinson instantly thrown in jail for over a year because of an obscure Contempt Act that a UK media guide says “in practice … is not enforced.” Lord Chief Justice Burnett denounced what he called "a fundamentally flawed process" and in a further rebuff to the kangaroo-court judge, assigned Tommy Robinson's case to someone else.

MEF president Daniel Pipes commented: “This validates the #FreeTommy campaign's claim that Tommy Robinson, yet again, had been treated (in the words of his autobiography's title) as an enemy of the state. We at the Middle East Forum are delighted by this turn of events and look forward to the charges against Tommy Robinson being considered in a sober, neutral, and un-rushed manner.”

Forum director Gregg Roman adds: “This is a win not just for Tommy Robinson, but for all those in the United Kingdom who publicly discuss Islam and related matters – including Islamism, jihad, and Islamic ‘charities.’ The UK authorities tried to shut down an important debate. They lost. The people won.”

The Forum will continue to support Mr. Robinson’s – and everyone else’s – right to speak freely about controversial topics.

_ _ _ _ _

The Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum promotes American interests and works to protect Western civilization from the threat of Islamism.

Brazilian Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Ex-President Lula

Corruption is Everywhere - Brazil Presidential Politics

A supporter of former Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva shows a cardboard that's reads

"No prison for Lula!" © Paulo Whitaker / Reuters

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been ordered to turn himself in by Friday afternoon to begin serving his 12 year sentence, after an appeals court authorized his immediate arrest on a conviction for graft.

The arrest warrant was issued by Brazilian federal Judge Sergio Moro on Thursday, a day after Supreme Federal Court (STF) dismissed Lula’s plea to remain free while he appeals the corruption conviction, which he dismisses as machinations by his political opponents.

According to the arrest order, Lula has until 5 pm local time Friday to turn himself to Federal Police in Curitiba. Apparently in order to avoid an escalation of tensions with Lula’s supporters, the federal judge barred authorities from using handcuffs on the former Brazilian president.

Due to the “dignity of the position” Lula had previously held, he will begin serving his prison term in specially reserved quarters, Moro's office was quoted as saying. “The former president will be separated from the other prisoners, without any risk for moral or physical integrity.”

One of Brazil's most popular political figures, da Silva, simply known as Lula, was convicted of money laundering and of passive corruption last July, and was sentenced to nine years behind bars. An appeals court in January upheld Lula's conviction and the court increased his sentence to 12 years. The latest developments would apparently block Lula’s re-election bid, despite strong public support.

Canadian Man Acquitted of Terror Charges, Amazing!

RCMP alleged that Othman Hamdan posted pro-ISIS materials to social media

By Michelle Ghoussoub, CBC News

Othman Hamdan, on his way into a bail hearing in Fort St. John on July 15, 2016.

He has been acquitted on all charges. (Brett Hyde/CBC)

A Fort St. John, British Columbia man charged with terror offenses, including inciting murder, has been acquitted.

Othman Hamdan was charged with encouraging murder, assault and mischief for terrorist purposes.

He was also accused of inducing and instructing someone to carry out a terrorist act.

Hamdan was 33 and working as a construction contractor when he was arrested in Fort St. John in 2015.

RCMP scrutinized 85 Facebook posts published between 2014 and 2015 and alleged that Hamdan posted pro-ISIS material and celebrated advances made by the group.

The court also heard that Hamdan's posts praised lone wolf attacks on Parliament Hill and Quebec and that he published a how-to guide for carrying out attacks. 

But Hamdan, who plead not guilty to all four charges against him, argued that his posts were taken out of context, and that he used social media to "shine a light" on atrocities being carried out in the Middle East.

He said his posts constituted political satire and were attempts to explain why certain events were taking place, without endorsing them.

A life on the road

Hamdan, who described himself as a non-practicing Sunni Muslim, was born to Palestinian parents in Abu Dhabi and moved to the U.S. at the age of 18.

After 9/11, Hamdan was interrogated because his Saudi roommate was an aviation student.

He moved to Vancouver in 2001, saying he was facing discrimination in the U.S.

Hamdan was accepted as a refugee in B.C. in 2002. 

According to prominent members of the Fort St. John community, Hamdan led a relatively isolated life in the small town.

At the time of his arrest, the mayor of Fort St. John said he was virtually unknown to the community.

A spokesman for the Peace River Muslim Association said he had never met or even heard of Hamdan before police announced the charges, and that he had never visited the local mosque.

Because Hamdan is not a Canadian citizen, he may need to attend an immigration hearing.

Sunni Muslim, Palestinian parents, praises terrorists, writes how-to guides for terrorists, anti-social, flies below every radar - why on earth would he be suspected of being a terrorist? Good grief! 

This has got to be appealed.

Woman Sentenced to 2.5 Years in Jail for Text Messages Urging Boyfriend to Kill Himself

© Glenn C. Silva / Global Look Press

A Massachusetts woman who texted her boyfriend with relentless insistence that he kill himself, is to spend at least 15 months behind bars after he ended his life inhaling carbon monoxide through a portable water pump he let into in his car.

Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz in Bristol County ruled Thursday that Michelle Carter, 20, serve two and a half years in jail, but stated only 15 months will be mandatory. Moniz previously ruled in June that Carter was guilty of involuntary manslaughter for telling her boyfriend Conrad Roy III, to kill himself. Roy committed suicide at the age of 18 in July 2014.

Carter’s lawyer, Joseph P. Cataldo, successfully petitioned to have the sentence stayed, which means Carter will not go to jail until her state appeals are exhausted. The judge ordered that Carter remain free on bail for now, but that she have no contact with the Roy family.

If Carter’s sentence isn’t overturned on appeal, it will begin on August 22, 2022, when she will serve at least the mandatory 15 months, according to Buzzfeed.

Carter was 17 years old at the time when Roy was discovered dead in his Ford F-150 pickup truck in a parking lot near Boston.

One of Carter’s more straightforward text messages to Roy urging him to end his life was used as evidence in the case.

"You can't think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don't get why you aren't," she wrote, NBC News reported.

Carter tried to tell Roy in another text message how much better it would be if he committed suicide. "You’re finally going to be happy in heaven. No more pain. It’s okay to be scared and it’s normal. I mean, you’re about to die," according to NBC News.

During a 47-minute call with Carter shortly before his death, Roy exited his truck because the carbon monoxide was “working and he got scared.” Carter “told him to get back in,” during the call, according to court documents. It was this specifically, Moniz said, that led him to find Carter guilty.

Moniz continued with his reasoning for the guilty verdict. He elaborated that Carter became responsible when she told Roy to re-enter the vehicle because she knew the man was entering into "a toxic environment inconsistent with human life," NBC News reported.

Further, Moniz said Carter did not contact Roy’s family when she knew his location before his death, and had a responsibility to do something to stop a life-threatening risk.

Written statements from family members of both parties involved in the case were delivered to the judge outlining how they felt about Carter.

"I don’t believe she can be helped. I don’t believe she could even give one single **** about what she’s done," Roy’s aunt, Kim Bozzi said in a written statement to Moniz on Thursday. "I believe she should be kept far away from society,”according to NBC News.

Carter’s father pleaded with the judge to understand that Carter was a troubled teenager at the time and wanted a lenient sentence for the woman.

"I pray to God you will take into consideration that Michelle was a troubled, vulnerable teenager in an extremely difficult situation and made a tragic mistake," David Carter wrote in a statement to Moniz. "I am 100% sure she was only trying to do what in her mind what was right for Conrad," NBC News reported.

The defense argued that Carter was not of sound mind when she perpetrated the acts against Roy. They stated the teen was on the drug Celexa at the time of the suicide. Celexa is prescribed to treat depression that can have side effects, including irrational thinking, irritability and poor impulse control.

Prosecutors argued that days before Roy took his life, Carter went through with a “dry run,” telling classmates that Roy was “missing” even though she was in contact with him throughout those days.

“She begins to get the attention she craved for,” assistant district attorney Maryclare Flynn said of Carter’s messages to her classmates, according to NBC News.

Months after Roy’s death, Carter began to panic when authorities set out to investigate the suicide and she realized the police would read her texts. “I just got off the phone with Conrad’s mom, and she told me … [police] have to go through his phone and see if anyone encouraged him to do it on texts and stuff. Sam, they read my messages with him I'm done. His family will hate me and I can go to jail,” Carter wrote to a friend in a message.

Ex-Brazilian President Luiz Lula Sentenced for Corruption

By Allen Cone 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends the Nuclear Security Summit at the Washington Convention Center on April 13, 2010. The former president was convicted Wednesday of graft and money laundering in the first of his five trials. Photo by Andrew Harrer/pool./UPI | License Photo

UPI -- A federal judge in Brazil on Wednesday sentenced former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to nine years and six months in prison on graft and money laundering charges.

Lula, president from 2003 until the end of 2010, was found guilty in federal court in the first of five graft trials -- all centered on a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal in Brazil.

The 71-year-old former president had faced charges that he illegally received about $1.1 million from a construction company in improvements and expenses for a beachfront apartment. Prosecutors said the company then received public contracts from a state-owned oil corporation.

Lula, who had planned to again seek the presidency in next year's election, has said accusations of his involvement are a "farce". He left office with a record-high approval rating of 83 percent but would be ineligible to run again if his conviction holds up on appeal.

The nation's senate impeached the following president, Dilma Rousseff, last year. Lula chose Rousseff as his successor and both politicians are members of the leftist Workers' Party.

The current president, Michel Temer, was formally accused on June 26 of corruption, in connection with a scheme involving the world's largest meatpacker, JBS. Temer became president last August and had served as vice president since 2011.

3 consecutive Presidents! Any chance it will stop there? I wouldn't hold my breath. The idea of becoming a politician to serve your country doesn't seem to have caught on in Brazil.

Lula faces four other trials relating to alleged corruption.

The judge handling Lula's case didn't call for the former president's detention following the decision.

Bizarre Criminal Record for Guantanamo Bay Youth Survivor

Omar Khadr's criminal record in Canada shows 'absolute ignorance,' lawyer says

Document refers to conviction by Guantanamo Bay 'youth court,' refers erroneously to concurrent sentences

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press 

Omar Khadr was released from prison in 2015 pending an appeal of his U.S. conviction,

which could take several more years. (Terry Reith/CBC)

Omar Khadr's official criminal record in Canada contains oddities and errors that are at odds with how the federal government viewed him on his return from the notorious prison on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The record, obtained by The Canadian Press, makes no reference to the fact that Khadr, 30, was convicted by an internationally condemned U.S. military commission for purported offences he committed as a 15-year-old in Afghanistan.

Instead, the document states only that he was convicted at "Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Youth Court)." It makes no reference anywhere to the United States or the commission.

While it's not clear when the record was first created, Khadr's Canadian lawyers call it bizarre. For one thing, they note there's no such thing as a Guantanamo Bay youth court.

However, despite the document, the Canadian government argued strenuously for years against treating Khadr as a young offender — placing him, for example, in a series of maximum security adult prisons on his return to Canada in September 2012.

I voted for Stephen Harper in every election he participated in and would again. Not because I like him, but because I like his opponents even less. Harper did a lot of things that I disliked intensely and leaving this kid hang out to dry was one of them. 

His mother and sisters are radicalized and should never be trusted, but Omar certainly appears to me to be as honest and sincere a person as there is. How he became such a person after enduring so many years in Guantanamo is worth a closer look. I hope he writes is story.

Additionally, the lawyers say, the record appears to formalize the fact that Khadr was convicted as a youth for alleged crimes that occurred in a war zone, which would make him a child soldier — a label the government has also always avoided.

No youth court in Guantanamo

Dennis Edney, one of Khadr's lawyers, who was initially unaware of the document, expressed profound surprise at its contents.

"There's not such a being as a criminal youth court in Guantanamo," Edney said from Edmonton. "Why would you do that? Internationally, the place was condemned because it didn't distinguish between Omar being a child and Omar being an adult."

The Americans captured the horrifically wounded Khadr in the rubble of a bombed out compound in Afghanistan in July 2002 following a fierce firefight that left an American special forces soldier dead and another partly blinded.

In October 2010, the Canadian citizen pleaded guilty to five war crimes before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, and was handed an eight-year sentence. The Toronto-born Khadr, who has long maintained the Americans tortured him during his lengthy captivity, later said he only pleaded guilty so he could return to Canada.

Omar Khadr is shown in a Guantanamo Bay interrogation room in this image taken from a 2003 surveillance video. (Handout/Canadian Press)

Edney said it's important people understand the context of the convictions — something sorely lacking in the official record.

"It shows absolute ignorance. It misstates itself in a very fundamental way," Edney said. "It shows no understanding of what Guantanamo is (and) demands an explanation as to why it is so described."

Concurrent sentences?

The RCMP document also erroneously states that Khadr was sentenced to five concurrent eight-year terms for each of his five charges. In fact, Canadian courts have ruled Khadr was handed a single eight-year sentence on all counts.

Co-counsel Nate Whitling, who also had not seen the document, called it unsurprising Khadr has a record in Canada given his transfer here to serve out his sentence. But Whitling still called it "weird." He noted there's no such thing as a concurrent sentence at Guantanamo Bay, and suggested Canadian authorities had "tried to fit a square peg into a round hole."

Khadr's lawyers say his conviction record should not enjoy legal recognition in Canada given that it has no reference to a legitimate court in a foreign country but arises out of military commissions that were set up to avoid U.S. constitutional scrutiny. Still, the criminal record could have an impact on Khadr, who hopes to study nursing, when he applies in the future for employment.

Barney Brucker, the Justice Department's lead lawyer on the Khadr file, did not respond to a request for information. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was not immediately available to comment on Monday.

Khadr was granted bail in Alberta in 2015 pending an ongoing appeal of his U.S. conviction — a process that will likely take several more years at least. The appeal rests on the fact that he was convicted for acts that were not crimes at the time he did them.

Iran: Twelve and a Half Years in Prison for Posting Jokes on Facebook

Islam has no sense of humour and no sense of shame,

and certainly no freedom of speech

Soheil Babadi was arrested in 2012 for writing jokes on Facebook about Shiite Islam & has been in prison since. His appeal remains unheard after a year

   The cover picture from the satirical Farsi language Facebook page "Campaign to Remind Shiites a       about Imam Naghi"

Soheil Babadi, 39, was arrested on May 22, 2012, placed in solitary confinement and tortured, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Babadi had posted 10 jokes on the Facebook page the "Campaign to Remind Shiites About Imam Naghi" in 2011. The page posts satire on political and religious issues focused around the figure of Imam Naghi, the tenth imam or religious leader in Shiite thought.  

Babdi says the post did not use any insulting words,” Babadi said in a letter written from prison. “A year later I was arrested by the IRGC’s [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps] Intelligence Organization without a warrant and held in Ward 2-A, the IRGC’s exclusive detention center, and beaten and interrogated for 24 hours."

Babadi says the charges against him are as follows:

insulting the Prophet Mohammad

insulting the sacred

assembly and collusion

insulting the supreme leader

propaganda against the state

membership in a group planning to overthrow the state

acting against national security

“I was interrogated while blindfolded in the corner of a room,” he said in the letter. “The agent wanted me to confess to the charges against me, and when I refused he severely beat me. I was constantly under psychological pressure as the agents probed into my personal life and tried to accuse me of sexual relations with friends and relatives, even with my sister-in-law, and even of homosexual relations with one of my friends, Mostafa. But they didn’t succeed and kept me in solitary confinement for 225 days.”

Initially he was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, 74 lashes and two years in exile for "insulting the sacred" and "insulting President Ahmedinejad."

He was later sentenced to an additional seven years imprisonment for "assembly and collusion against national security” and “insulting the supreme leader." He filed an appeal a year ago, but the appeals court has not yet acted on it.

Doctor Joins ISIS Medical Team in “Jihad” Against the West: “I Wish I’d Come Sooner”

Australian-doctor joins jihad

Pamela Geller
Another doctor, affluent and Western educated, leaves everything to join the Islamic State, blowing up Obama’s and every other Western leader’s delusional narrative about poverty, disaffection and illiteracy driving Muslims to jihad.

It’s Islam.

I’ll also point out that calling those who oppose jihad terror “racists” is laughable. Islam is not a race. Just ask this blue-eyed doctor.

Herdsmen in Nigeria, rappers in Germany, doctors in Glasgow, chemical engineering students in Canada, heart surgeons in Saudi Arabia, university students in Britain, imams in America and so forth – what brings these wildly different people together? Jihad. From the Sahara to the Kalahari, London to Lisbon, Manhattan to Madrid, Bali to Boston, Tiananmen Square to Thailand, Myanmar to Malaysia, Nairobi to Nigeria ….. no matter what the background, upbringing, schooling, wealth or poverty, color, what have you, it doesn’t matter. The understanding of Islam and jihad is the same, and it is the motive, the incitement to this monstrous war on the West and and the East and all points in between.

If the world were as concerned with the mass slaughter of non-Muslims by jihadists as they are about the fictional narrative of “islamophobia,” we might begin to defeat this enemy of humanity.

Why a 'normal' person would chose to become Muslim is barely conceivable. Unfortunately, the inability of politicians and media to relate the truth about Islam makes it seem more attractive than it is. To make it worse, people like Pamela Geller are shouted down as bigots, or barred from entering some countries, for telling the truth. 

The west is feeding the human supply lines of jihad with our culturally suicidal, political correctness. Boy, are we stupid!

The Age
Victoria, AU APRIL 25, 2015

Australian doctor joins ISIS medical team in ‘jihad’ against the west

 

The Australian doctor, who calls himself Abu Yusuf, says he travelled from
his home country to join IS and is using his medical skills
“as part of my jihad for Islam”

A YOUNG Australian doctor has appeared in an Islamic State video urging other medical professionals to travel to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria to join the jihad against the west.

The stylish promotional IS video has not been verified but was circulated on IS-affiliated social media accounts.

The video introduces the “ISHS” — or IS Health Service — and appears to have been filmed in Raqqa in the Raqqa General Hospital.

The video features a number of doctors talking about medical facilities in the IS stronghold.

The Australian doctor introduces himself as Abu Yusuf and says he travelled to Raqqa from Australia to offer his medical services as part of his “jihad for Islam”.

Aussie doctor appears in IS video

“My name is Abu Usef. I’m one of the medical team here. I came from Australia to the Islamic State to live under the khalifah.

“I saw this as part of my Jihad for Islam to help the Muslims in the area that I could, which is the medical field and when I got here while I was very happy that I made the decision and I was a little bit saddened by how long I’d delayed it.

“I wish I’d come sooner.”

Facing the camera in a section of the video titled Pediatrics, he urges other doctors and medical professionals to join the medical team.

He is also shown treating babies in incubators. He says repeatedly that equipment is not the issue for the hospital but the availability of well-trained doctors

“We need the brothers and sisters to come and help us from all around the world. We just need the manpower … to help us grow this.

“After being here it’s disappointing to think how many fellow Muslim brothers and sisters who are in the medical field; doctors and nurses, physios and dentists are still living in the west and unfortunately here the Muslims are really suffering from not lack of equipment or medicine but lack of qualified medical care.

“So I suppose a message I would want to send out to any brothers and sister still living in the west who are considering coming … we really need your help. Any little thing gives the local people who are truly suffering a lot of benefit.

“Please consider coming, please don’t delay.

“I’ll see you soon”.

Australian National University terrorism expert Clarke Jones confirmed the video’s authenticity.

“This is certainly legit,” he said.

“It’s appealing with the use of the Australian to others, by showing them any ordinary Australian, in this case, can go across there and live a comfortable life beyond their expectations.

“It’s appealing to normal, rational people within the educated young crowd and it’s not just about fighting now, it’s about going over there and supporting brothers and sisters in the Islamic State.”

Dr Jones said the man broke the mould of those expected to flee Australia to fight.

“People want to say its either or (but) this guy does break the mould and that it appeals to a wide variety of people,” he said.

“If we don’t start to take a more understanding approach to this, which the Islamic State is beginning to have more appeal than Australia, we are going to continue to lose.”