Simon Trinidad Pre-Trial Conference Notes
- From: "Paul" <paulwolf@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: 22 Aug 2006 17:34:42 -0700
After 5 hours of listening to Judge Hogan mumbling into a microphone in
a slow, deep monotone, staring at his papers, I feel totally
hypnotized. Nevertheless I have just enough energy left to write down
these few notes from Trinidad's pre-trial conference today:
- the trial date has been moved back to Oct 10. Jury selection starts
the week before, on Oct 3rd. Jury selection had been set to begin on
Sept. 11th, without anyone noticing the odd effect this might have on
jurors, but the defense was able to get it changed.
- 20 witnesses are coming from Colombia. This means it will be a long
trial.
- the prosecution's motion for an "anonymous jury" was denied. I have
never even heard of this procedure and will have to research it. The
prosecution has told the court that the FARC have issued threats to
kill family members of anyone testifying against Simon Trinidad. I
have no idea whether this is true, and will be amazed if it is. The
judge did not find that the FARC was operating in the US and was
capable of carrying out the threat, which was apparently against
witnesses, not jurors.
- likewise a list of witnesses and witness statements (Jencks material)
will not be provided to the defense until the jury selection (voir
dire) begins.
- Simon Trinidad apparently wrote a letter describing many aspects of
his treatment and of the trial, which made its way out of his solitary
confinement (hard to imagine how) and was broadcast by the FARC over
the radio. Both the prosecutors and defense have copies of it but I do
not. The prosecution wants to use it to prove Trinidad is still a
member of the FARC "kidnapping conspiracy."
I was unable to write fast enough to get all of it, but apparently he
said:
"I prefer to carry these chains the rest of my life rather than be
traded" and also spoke about the "dignity of revolutionaries."
Sorry but that's all I got. It was apparently a long and detailed
letter about the trial.
- the Colombian Attorney General has apparently refused to allow
Trinidad back to Colombia to attend his trials because of security
concerns. This is opposite to what happened before, when a Colombian
judge requested Trinidad's presence for his trials about the kidnapping
of the mayor of Valledupar and other things. The US govt is arguing
that under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, the Colombians make this
decision. However, as I pointed out in my open letter to Bob Tucker,
under international law, trials in absentia violate the human rights of
the defendant, and their judgments have no legal validity. For
example, I know of one recent case of a person who fled to the US from
Bolivia and was tried there in absentia. The US will not extradite him
because of the in absentia trial. In any event, I see this as nothing
more than an exercise in shifting the blame back onto the Colombians.
Trinidad's in absentia trials in Colombia will still be invalid.
- despite numerous statements by Colombian government officials that
the electronic surveillance plane "crashed", the analysis of the crash
showed 35 bullet holes in both wings, and in the tail, of the crashed
plane. The Colombian government has continuously maintained that the
plane was not shot down.
- finally, from what I know of the evidence, there is not much tying
Trinidad to these events. The government is trying to apply conspiracy
laws to an organization of 15,000 people. It's totally absurd and
unique in US law. As far as new US "war on terrorism" strategies go, I
think its a loser, even if Trinidad is convicted. Whatever the jury
may find, as a matter of law, it's a misapplication. The key to the
prosecution's case seems to be a right wing expert witness named David
E Spencer. Mr Spencer claims to be a FARC expert who will testify,
among other things that the FARC is a "hostage-taking conspiracy." He
will be used to prove all kinds of "other crimes evidence" (404b)
committed by the FARC organization, which was originally a
"co-defendant" in the case. To any lawyer this is a patently absurd
concept - another "war on terrorism" strategy which was luckily
aborted. Nevertheless Mr Spencer's job as a paid expert is to paint a
picture of the FARC as a huge hostage-taking conspiracy, the members of
which should be prosecuted as co-conspirators. Spencer has a
background in psyops and working with Croatian reporters during the
Yugoslavia war, and as a consultant to the Guatemalan Minister of
Defense in the late 80s and early 90s. He does not seem like a person
to take lightly.
- Paul
.
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