Posted on 03/20/2002 7:52:49 AM PST by Nita Nupress
Ted Maher -- former Special Forces; Neonatal Intensive Care nurse
American Green Beret veteran and accomplished neonatal nurse Ted Maher has now been held 537 days without trial in Monaco's prison on trumped-up and false charges -- charges of causing the deaths of billionaire banker Edmond Safra and Ted's fellow nurse, Vivian Torrente on December 3, 1999. In truth, Ted fought valiantly against two armed, masked intruders to defend Edmond and Vivian and save their lives. During the struggle, Ted suffered severe knife wounds that required one hundred staples to close.
Billionaire banker Edmond Safra was cooperating with the FBI, who was investigating the IMF/Russian loans. Needing a convenient scapegoat for the murder of Safra, Monaco police subjected Ted to three days of grueling torture designed to extort a false confession from him. (see description in "BASIC TIMELINE" in Thread 1 - http://206.112.97.70/forum/a3ad8b097272d.htm ).
Monaco continues to hold Ted incommunicado, preventing him from sending or receiving mail. In fact, they restrict his communication with his family to one telephone call a week. This call is only allowed to last a few minutes and is always monitored closely to prevent any discussion of the case. Ted is forced by his jailers to take a psychotropic medication and is regularly "interrogated" by the Monaco judge -- Patricia Richet. Reports have been received that Judge Richet is a violent person who has displayed unstable behavior in the past. She allegedly has a history of assaulting a fellow judge, putting him in the hospital for a week. She also tears up letters from Ted's children in front of Ted rather than let him read them.
Hundreds of family, friends, work associates, parents of patients, and Army veterans who served with Ted have vouched for him as being a loyal husband, loving father, and an exemplary professional of great skill and compassion. Ted has also been defended by then-chairman of the House International Relations Committee Ben Gilman and Ted's congresswoman Sue Kelly, who have written Prince Rainier III of Monaco on Ted's behalf. Monaco has no evidence of any crime by Ted; they have no witnesses and no credible case against him. Even worse, Monaco has planted false evidence and suppressed vast amounts of exculpatory evidence -- even passing a special Monaco law that enables them to hold Ted four years without trial.
The Geneva prosecutor has said that Safra was killed for his cooperation with the FBI regarding the laundering through Safra's Republic National Bank of $4.8 billion in IMF loans to Russia.
Regardless of the reason "why," it is obvious that Ted Maher is a scapegoat for a murder by others. We are working to obtain his release and to correct the grave injustice being done to an American Green beret veteran and medical professional.
Ted Maher -- a giver of life, not a taker -- needs our help.
============================================
To read the "BASIC TIMELINE" that describes the events surrounding the night of December 3, 1999, click here:
American Green Beret Veteran TED MAHER Held Hostage by Monaco for 498 Days and Counting... (Thread I)
To read the "BASIC TIMELINE
American Green Beret Veteran TED MAHER Held Hostage by Monaco for 537 Days and Counting... (Thread II)
American Green Beret Veteran TED MAHER Held Hostage by Monaco for 544 Days and Counting... (Thread III)
American Green Beret Veteran TED MAHER Held Hostage by Monaco for 544 Days and Counting... (Thread IV)
American Green Beret Veteran TED MAHER Held Hostage by Monaco for 615 Days and Counting... (second Thread IV)
American Green Beret Veteran TED MAHER Held Hostage by Monaco for 629 Days and Counting... (Thread VI)
American Green Beret Vet TED MAHER Held HOSTAGE by Monaco for 629 Days (Thread 6) second thread 6"
American Green Beret Vet TED MAHER Held HOSTAGE by Monaco for 629 Days (Thread 10)
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(You can write in English on the French page and scroll down to read. Please note they have a tendency to delete messages regarding Ted - not "fairytale-correct.")
Not cliche enough. If they'd said we're a "writhing viper pit of evil," I would've graded higher.
Agreed; prayers for your brother, his wife and children, and all of your family. May God continue to protect him.
Of course Monaco's Princess Grace Memorial Hospital tested Ted for drugs and alcohol with results negatif negatif negatif.
This was shown on DatelineNBC November 21, 2000 in its "Who Killed the Billionaire?"
Dateline removed its transcript from its site shortly after, claiming "lack of interest".
The transcript is archived at TedMaher.com.
I wrote Thomas Sancton about this, but he never replied.
Daniel Serdet was adamant that he would obtain life imprisonment; then he retreated to twelve years, but was not able to get even that.
The ten years which gives Monaco face-saving cover may very well be transformed into probation in March.
The extorted false confession was maintained by the pretend defenders Georges Blot and Donald Manasse.
Yet they, too, were outmaneuvered; their attempts to bar Michael Griffith failed when brought to the attention of Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Michael Griffith was successful in his intercession on behalf of innocent American citizen Jim Williams held 1400 days in Ecuador.
-BTTT-
Monaco: Let Ted come home to his family. Merci.
(Please let me know if you would like to be added or removed from my ping list. FReep-mail is best. Thanks.)
Prayer bump for Ted Maher's protection.
Ted Maher is indeed a political prisoner being held against his will for something he did not do but was coerced into confessing. Plenty of evidence was presented to support this reality but of course some idiots choose not to look at it and believe otherwise.
As someone once said, the law is an a**. I just wonder how these people would feel if it was them that was railroaded this way.
All the best to you and the Maher family. Regards.
Most of the media is writing exactly what Monaco wants them to write. There is no mention of the conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths. As Serdet states "There is no mystery here, Maher was exclusively responsible for the deaths." "The only mystery which remains is what was going on in head and what were his true motives." Also the scientific evidence presented at the trial. Serdet again said "There was no way of telling when, and in what circumstances, these came to be present, they should be ignored."
Thank you freepers for supporting the Maher family. We all wish that it was a better ending but all of us knew that Monaco would make Monaco look good to the world. Heidi is still in Monaco and will be allowed to see Ted today for one hour. Manasse probably went out to celebrate his victory. It went as he planned.
Nurse is jailed for causing death of millionaire banker
By John Lichfield in Paris
03 December 2002
An American male nurse accidentally caused the death by asphyxiation of the millionaire banker Edmond Safra when a hare-brained attempt to impress his boss went tragically wrong, a court in Monaco decided yesterday.
Ted Maher, 44, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after admitting he started the fire which killed his employer and another nurse three years ago in a muddled plot to make himself look like a hero.
After a 10-day trial, the Monaco criminal court rejected suggestions that the confused and slow reaction of the Monaco police and fire brigade contributed to the death of the 67-year-old banker and his nurse, Vivien Torrente, 52.
Maher set fire to a waste paper bin in M. Safra's apartment and stabbed himself in his stomach and thigh after telling his employer that he was being attacked by a criminal "commando" unit. He bundled the banker and his nurse into a bathroom and raised the alarm, intending to claim the credit for fighting off the attackers.
The fire spread rapidly through the apartment, while police and firemen struggled with security doors and waited for reinforcements to tackle a criminal gang, which did not exist. At one point, the police arrested and handcuffed M. Safra's chief bodyguard, thinking that he was an attacker.
A policeman spoke to M. Safra on a mobile telephone but was unable to persuade him to leave his sanctuary, the court heard. The Monaco chief prosecutor, Daniel Serdet, rejected suggestions from lawyers representing Maher, and the families of the victims, that the principality's emergency services were partly responsible for the deaths.
He also dismissed, without referring to them specifically, the many conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths. "There is no mystery here," M. Serdet said. "Maher was exclusively responsible for the deaths.The only mystery which remains is what was going on in head and what were his true motives".
Scientific evidence presented to the trial did, however, raise some facts which could not easily fit into the version of events broadly accepted by the defence and prosecution. The court was told that DNA traces from an unknown man were found under M. Safra's fingernails and that spots of the banker's blood were found on the bra and knickers of the dead nurse. Since there was no way of telling when, and in what circumstances, these came to be present, they should be ignored, the prosecutor said.
Maher, who was found guilty of "causing deaths by arson in an inhabited place", told the court he concocted a "stupid" plot to make himself appear a hero to his boss. M. Safra's family's lawyers suggested that he expected to be given a large sum of money for his heroism.
Elisabeth de Franceschi, a psychiatrist, told the court that Maher, a former US paratrooper, was an immature, ambitious man, who came to hero-worship M. Safra and could not bear the thought that others shared his affection. "He had an insatiable hunger for recognition ... He was driven by jealousy and competetiveness," she said.
M. Safra's security chief, Samuel Cohen, told the court he would have been able to save his boss but his route was barred by the Monaco police for a crucial 30 minutes.
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