CJA In The News

Former Salvadoran Vice Minister of Defense for Public Security Inocente Orlando Montano will be sentenced for violating federal criminal immigration fraud and perjury laws in the United States. The sentencing phase, which began in January, should conclude on August 22.

Most documentaries record and preserve history–only a few change the arc of history. In Guatemala in the early 1980s, a young American documentary filmmaker named Pamela Yates bore witness to massive crimes and atrocities at great personal risk to make her film. This year, a quarter-century later, her footage became critical evidence used to convict a military dictator of genocide.

A California woman is the first Cambodian-American to testify in a trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders, traveling to the capital city of Phnom Penh to give her testimony before a United Nations-backed tribunal.

On Tuesday, June 4, 2013, a fourth victim impact hearing was held in Case 002 at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). Since last Monday, civil parties have testified about the harm they suffered under the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime.

A fourth victim impact hearing was held in Case 002 at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Civil party lawyers questioned their clients, while prosecutors and defense attorneys had limited time to examine them on the facts in Case 002. The civil parties who testified on Tuesday were Cambodian-American Bay Sophany, Soeun Sovandy, and Seng Sivutha.

Torture victim Abukar Hassan Ahmed was living in London when he decided several years ago to search again for the man he says crippled him during interrogations in Somalia in the 1980s. It took just a half-hour Internet search in 2005 to locate the former government official then living in Ohio. Ahmed finally got the chance to tell his story in court last week after a federal judge ruled in his favor in a lawsuit against the official, Abdi Aden Magan.

Today, in a federal court in Ohio, CJA client Professor Abukar Ahmed testified about his torture and unlawful detention during the brutal Siad Barre regime in Somalia. The defendant, Colonel Magan, was head of the notorious NSS Department of Investigations which was widely known to inflict psychological terror and physical torture against political prisoners and civilians. For press on the testimony click here, for a press release click here and for more on the case click here.

The milestones achieved by the prosecution of Rios Montt significantly elevated Guatemala and its system of justice in the eyes of the international human rights community. This trial did not come easily to the Guatemalan courts, and did not proceed smoothly once it got there. Nevertheless, the successful prosecution was hailed by international observers and human rights groups as a major victory for justice–until the guilty verdict was overturned by the Constitutional Court in a 3-2 decision only 10 days after it was delivered.

Montano hoy enfrenta un proceso en una corte federal en Boston por haber mentido en sus formularios migratorios y ocultado información sobre su trayectoria militar durante la guerra civil salvadoreña (1980-1992). Montano será sentenciado en las próximas semanas por esos delitos, pero un crimen de guerra, por el que ha sido acusado en un tribunal de España, juega un papel central en el juicio de Boston.

The U.S. Supreme Court today issued a disappointing decision in Kiobel v. Shell, holding that the ATS does not provide an avenue for justice for Nigerian human rights victims who were harmed when Shell Oil assisted the Nigerian government in attacking them and their family members. Despite this, the splintered opinions by Justices Kennedy, Alito, and Thomas leave open the possibility that companies and individuals may still be liable for their abuses in cases with a stronger connection to the United States.