Tuesday, May 17, 2011
US International injustices - Jack Lang complains
Arrested Saturday and charged with rape at a New York hotel, French Socialist politicians expressed outrage on Tuesday at what they see is the parading of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, seen handcuffed and unshaven before defending himself on charges.
Former Culture Minister Jack Lang said he feels the treatment of Strauss-Kahn is a “lynching” that has “provoked horror and aroused disgust.”
Lang said Strauss-Kahn was “politicized” saying the judge had been determined to “make a Frenchman pay” by denying the head of the International Monetary Fund bail after his lawyer offered to post a $1 million bond.
Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry also denounced what he considers to be “degrading images.” Aubry said France is fortunate to have a law on the presumption of innocence that keeps the media from showing defendants in handcuffs before they convicted.
Former Culture Minister Jack Lang said he feels the treatment of Strauss-Kahn is a “lynching” that has “provoked horror and aroused disgust.”
Lang said Strauss-Kahn was “politicized” saying the judge had been determined to “make a Frenchman pay” by denying the head of the International Monetary Fund bail after his lawyer offered to post a $1 million bond.
Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry also denounced what he considers to be “degrading images.” Aubry said France is fortunate to have a law on the presumption of innocence that keeps the media from showing defendants in handcuffs before they convicted.
The UK also has problems with USA. Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, vowed that the Obama administration will "take all of the necessary steps" to have McKinnon extradited
I don't think the US Attorney General has done their argument any favours. By claiming McKinnon needs to be "held accountable for the crimes that he committed" he is implying that a guilty verdict has already been reached before trial - there's a presumption of guilt which will bias the court.
Such a statement may even have made a trial in the UK impossible - you just can't make assertions like that. If that was said during a trial here, it would probably cause the case to collapse; the judge would order an acquittal and probably haul whoever said that into court for contempt.
Maybe you can prejudice trials like that in the US, but certainly not in the UK.
IMO: This is 'Hamburger on stilts'. The situation must matter to both Strauss-Kahn and McKinnon but as usual, in the US, foreign citizens count as nothing, compared to US local pride and pork-barrel politics. Jack Lang complains about US arrest of leading Frenchman and the Brits complain about McKinnon. Obama can probably do nothing about their complaints because the US is near bankruptcy and probably can only afford to fight a war. Europe is frankly not worth fighting a war with, the US are better reclaiming parts of Afghanistan which has great natural resources. Pakistan is just a mess, and parts of Pakistan could be surrendered to Afghanistan as part of a peace settlement with the Taliban.
# posted by uv : 2:51 PM
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