US judge prevents deportation of Cuban terror suspect on torture concerns News
US judge prevents deportation of Cuban terror suspect on torture concerns

[JURIST] Texas Judge William L. Abbott ruled Tuesday that former anti-Castro CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles [Wikipedia profile] will not be deported to either Cuba or Venezuela where local officials want to prosecute him for alleged terrorist acts. US attorneys agreed that Posada should not be deported to Cuba, where he is accused of making numerous attempts to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro [Wikipedia profile]. Abbott relied on the Convention against Torture [text] in reaching his decision not to deport Posada to Venezuela. Venezuelan officials have requested that Posada be sent to Venezuela in order to face charges for his alleged role in a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison while awaiting trial, but his attorneys told the US immigration judge that Posada would likely be tortured if he were returned to Venezuela. Posada will remain in the custody of Immigration and Customs officials for up to 90 days and the Department of Homeland Security has not ruled out the possibility of deporting Posada to a third country that will agree not to turn him over to Cuba or Venezuela. Wednesday's Sun Sentinel has more.

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THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.