Student accused in Bush assassination plot alleges Saudi torture led to confession News
Student accused in Bush assassination plot alleges Saudi torture led to confession

[JURIST] Ahmed Omar Abu Ali [indictment, PDF], a Virginia man charged with joining al Qaeda [JURIST report] and plotting to assassinate President Bush, testified Wednesday that he had been beaten and tortured after being arrested in Saudi Arabia. The testimony was offered during a pre-trial hearing to determine whether a confession he made in 2003 was coerced. Abu Ali, who attended college in Saudi Arabia, angrily said Saudi authorities had refused to allow him to contact the US embassy and later whipped him. The US has argued that Abu Ali confessed voluntarily to his involvement in the plot. Both sides presented expert testimony on Tuesday on whether scars on Abu Ali's back could have been caused by torture. If District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee finds that the confession was coerced, he could dismiss the entire case against Abu Ali. AP has more.

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THIS DAY @ LAW

38 Santee Sioux hanged by US for rebellion

On December 26, 1862, 38 Santee Sioux men were hanged in a mass execution for their roles in a rebellion against US authorities in Minnesota which left hundreds dead and made refugees of some 40,000 white settlers. Government annuities promised under a treaty with the Sioux had failed to arrive on schedule and credit for purchases was not advanced in the meantime, threatening the tribe with starvation. The Santee Sioux Tribe's members were deported first to South Dakota and ultimately to Nebraska, where they remain today. Learn more about the 1862 Minnesota Sioux Rebellion.

Louis XVI put on trial during French Revolution

On December 26, 1792, Romain de Sèze, a defense attorney for deposed King Louis XVI, presented a defense of his client. The former King was on trial before a French Revolutionary court on thirty-three charges, including treason and other crimes against the state. He was convicted on January 15, 1793 executed by guillotine on the following January 21.