Ted Maher now says "It was an accident"

court tv online ^

[Jalapeno]

New Yorker pleads with Monaco court not to prosecute him in arson deaths

Ted Maher, left, could spend the rest of his life in a Monaco prison if convicted of killing billionaire Edmond Safra and a nurse in a fire he set in 1999.

By John Springer Court TV The 1999 deaths of billionaire banker Edmond Safra and a private-duty nurse in a Monaco were a "terrible accident" and should not be prosecuted as intentional homicides, a New York man charged with setting the fire that killed them told an appeals court early this month.   Ted Maher, a 43-year-old nurse who had been on Safra's personal staff, made the claim that the deaths were accidental in prepared remarks he read in a hearing May 3 before three judges. The court is expected to issue a key ruling within weeks which could determine whether Maher goes home to upstate New York soon or if he will spend much of the rest of his life imprisoned in the tiny French principality on the Mediterranean. Edmond Safra A Monaco prosecutor asked the court at that closed-door hearing to uphold his decision to try Maher on charges of arson causing death. Maher's lawyers insist that although the defendant set a fire Dec. 3, 1999, in a wastepaper basket, he had no intention of harming anyone. Prosecutors say Maher changed his story quickly and confessed that he merely wanted to look like a hero in his wealthy employer's eyes when he set the fire, stabbed himself and cooked up a story about confronting two hooded intruders.   Maher's statement before the appeals court, which was obtained this week by Courttv.com, shows his frustration with a criminal justice system that his family claims is making Maher a scapegoat for the failure of police and firefighters to rescue Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente. Both died from toxic fumes spread by a fire inside Safra's fortified penthouse in Monaco.   Before the fire gutted the penthouse, Maher stumbled bleeding from knife wounds into the lobby of Safra's bank building to report the fire. Firefighters, however, were kept from launching a rescue mission for more than an hour after Maher was taken to a hospital because police believed the intruders were still inside.   "Today, I exercise my right to protest ...," Maher, with the support of his lawyers, began his remarks. "I fully realize how politically charged and biased this case has been.  Does this justify a wrongful outcome of justice or to pass it along to others?  Does this allow a blindness to the laws of the country?"   Maher than hit on a point that some of the lawyers on his five-member legal team stressed in arguments to the judges. "Without the intent can there be a crime?  I was involved in a terrible accident, in which I hold myself responsible for, to a point," Maher said. "So much time passed without intervention.  I am no more an arsonist than anyone here. Is an accident a crime?  No, it's not!  And that is my main point. This is and always will be a terrible accident for numerous parties concerned — nothing more or less."   Prosecutor Daniel Serdet could not be reached. Maher's lawyer in Monte Carlo, Donald Manasse, told Courttv.com after the hearing that the defendant was forceful and sincere while delivering his remarks to the court.   "When he speaks for himself he comes off very sincere," Manasse said. "He basically says, 'I'm only a nurse and a father. This is all much great than me and I am very much concerned that this is a political thing.' "   The death of Safra, one of the richest men in the world, touched of a legal battle between his widow, Lily Safra, and surviving brothers. The "brothers Safra," as they have become to be known in the European press, have been trying to get the pre-trial investigation to remain open out of a belief that perhaps Maher not act alone. Lily Safra's high-powered lawyer argued that there is no evidence that anyone other than Maher was responsible for the deaths.   According to Manasse, the prosecutor's argument was that although he believes Maher did not intend to cause the death, he is nonetheless responsible for the consequences of his actions for setting the fire. Serdet argued that Maher should be forced to answer the more serious arson causing deaths charge in criminal court and not the French equivalent of involuntary manslaughter.   If the judges rule that Maher can be prosecuted in criminal court, he could face life in prison if convicted. If the case is tried as a lesser crime in a correctional court, Maher would face only six years in prison. He has already been incarcerated for 30 months.   At the hearing, Maher's lawyers argued that the investigation and statements Maher made to police in 1999 about being attacked by intruders should be nullified on numerous procedural grounds. Manasse said that he argued that the first examining magistrate, Patricia Richet, failed to properly advise Maher of his right to counsel before she interrogated him on the record. The appeals court recently held that suspects should even be interrogated at their initial appearances, only asked if they want to make a statement, Manasse said.   Maher's lawyers also argued that a search of Maher's hotel room was illegal because he was not present and did not appoint a designee to be there. Although Maher's wife, Heidi Maher, was present for the search, Maher did not know that she was in Monaco. Heidi Maher claims that she was kidnapped by agents of Lily Safra and taken to a police station against her will so that her passport could be confiscated and shown to her husband to get him to confess.   Maher has dropped his claim that he was attacked by intruders but his lawyers and wife say that without evidence he intended to harm Safra or Torrente, the more serious charge is neither appropriate nor legal.   "Should the courts keep the arson charges against Ted, I will look forward to having Monaco, not Ted, on trial," Heidi Maher told Courttv.com. "[The defense] has prepared many worldwide experts to come into the trial to prove it was Monaco's police and firemen, not my husband, that killed Mr. Safra and Vivian Torrente. The same policemen that kidnapped both me and my brother to force Ted to confess. My husband was trying to save Mr. Safra and Vivian that night. The evidence clearly shows this. Monaco picked the wrong scapegoat. I will not give up my fight for showing the truth."   The court did not indicate how soon it will rule. A correctional trial — held for the lesser charges — could he conducted as early as July, if the court rules that way. A criminal trial most likely could not begin until September at the earliest.   Michael Griffith, a New York lawyer advising the defense, attended the hearing but was not permitted to address the court. We wanted them to know that if they do hold Ted to the higher charge, it's going to be a longer trial than they expected and we're going to put Monaco on trial," Griffith said. "If that happens people are going to find out that in Monaco it takes three years for an American to go to trial and when the wife goes over she gets kidnapped on the street."   Griffith said he expects a ruling by late May or the first week of June.

Comprehensive case coverage

[Nita Nupress]

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

MAIL ON SUNDAY
December 5, 1999
Pg. 8

Does the wife of the murdered banker hold the clue to his death?;
Fears of a ruthless vendetta by Russian Mafia leaves the world's top financiers terrified for their lives
Adam Luck; Ian King

BILLIONAIRE banker Edmond Safra ignored pleas from his wife to leave his Monaco apartment's smoke-filled bathroom minutes before he was suffocated to death by a fire started by assassins.

In a dramatic mobile phone call to her terrified husband, Lily Safra begged him to break out of the barricaded room where he had locked himself and the family nanny away from two masked men who had broken in through the roof of his luxury penthouse.  

[From what I've been told, these phone records have been suppressed from the "trial."  Also, the police emergency tape from December 3, 1999  and the videotape from the penthouse security camera(s) are mysteriously "missing" and therefore unavailable for the trial.]

But Mr Safra the Lebanese-born founder of the Republic National Bank of New York was so scared and confused, fearing the would-be killers were just outside, that he was unable to raise the courage to unlock the door. Instead, he and the family nanny Vivianne Torrent were asphyxiated by fumes.  

[Where is the autopsy report? Why isn't DNA evidence allowed in the "trial?"  Who were all those workmen who had just been at the apartment for the renovations?  Why did Lily decide to bury Edmond in Switzerland, when his lifelong wish was to be buried in Israel?  Did someone "twist her arm?"  Edmond's family was FURIOUS about this. And Lily wouldn't allow Edmond's brothers near the coffin at the funeral.  Why is that?   Why were there "multiple ignition sources" reported in the fire report?  What happened to Ted's original clothing he wore that night? ]

Prime suspects for the murders are Russian gangsters, believed to be furious at Mr Safra's cooperation with an FBI investigation into their Mafia. The full horror of Mr Safra's last minutes was revealed last night as investigators across three continents were trying to unravel the business practices of one of the world's richest men.

According to police, two men in balaclavas entered Mr Safra's apartment block near the famous Monte Carlo casino through the roof just after 4am on Friday. They then triggered a complex alarm system which alerted Mr Safra, his wife and other members of the household, to their presence.  [This is contradictory.  The alarm system had been disconnected in July.]

Police believe they attacked Mr Safra, hitting him on the head with a firearm, but he fled to the top-floor bathroom, locking himself inside. [Where is that autopsy report?  How would the original police accounts say something about this if they didn't see an injury on Safra's body?]

Frustrated at their inability to reach him, they set fire to the top floor apparently ignoring Mr Safra's wife, who took refuge in the bottom floor of the duplex. In the struggle, a male nurse who was employed to help Mr Safra cope with his Parkinson's disease was stabbed.

The nurse, who police refused to name but detectives believe is American, staggered from the apartment clutching his stomach. Drenched in blood, he had been knifed in the abdomen and the left thigh and said he had been knocked unconscious by a blow to the back of the head. He is now under armed guard at the Princess Grace hospital.

Last night, The Mail on Sunday also learned that Mr Safra's Brazilian-born wife is thought to have told friends that she distrusted his private security force of burly former Israeli commandos.

However, as one of the world's most prominent Jewish businessmen and benefactors of Jewish charities, Mr Safra also feared an attack from Arab extremists. A close friend of Mr Safra's said last night that Mrs Safra had been particularly suspicious of one bodyguard: 'There was extremely bad blood between some of the bodyguards and Lily. She did not trust them and said so in no uncertain terms. But the family didn't take it seriously.

'Lily is the kind of person who dislikes many things.' Mr Safra had made countless enemies during his glittering 50-year career but his biggest and final mistake was to cross the Russian Mafia.

Now, according to members of the business community who have had dealings with the Russians, a host of top Wall Street bankers and even some members of the International Monetary Fund could be the next in line.

There is also speculation that Sir John Bond, chairman of HSBC Holdings which has just paid GBP 6.16 billion for Mr Safra's Republic Bank of New York will be forced to step up his personal security arrangements.

Sir John, a close personal friend of Mr Safra and one of Britain's most respected bankers, is thought to have insisted that Republic pulled the plug on its numerous Russian banking relationships making it harder for the proceeds of organised crime to be laundered. The Russian Mafia, whose previous favoured home had been Geneva, has moved into the tiny principality of Monaco in increasing numbers during recent years and are now the dominant foreign grouping.

And, according to others in the tightly-knit community of tax exiles and international jet-setters who live in Monaco, Mr Safra was murdered to send a message to others who have crossed the Russians.

The SAS-style mission is being seen as the work of former soldiers of the Spetnaz, the former Russian special air service, many of which are now employed as hit-men for the Mafia.

But the gossipy Monaco business community is baffled by the nature of the killing.

They point out that Mr Safra, who despite being crippled with the onset of Parkinson's disease was a meticulous man, and was in the habit of being driven from the building where he was murdered to another home further up the coast.

One Monaco-based businessman said: 'The thing puzzling us is that Mr Safra had a big house to which he travelled every day. The easiest way to hit him would be while he was in transit trying to assassinate him at his apartment at the bank was the risky way of trying to get to him.

'This was obviously a message from the Russian Mafia to others that may have crossed them, "Wherever you are, even in your high-security apartment, you are never safe from us".' Mr Safra is thought to have crossed the Russian Mafia effectively signing his own death warrant around five years ago when his Republic Bank of New York blew the whistle on a suspected GBP 6 billion money-laundering racket.

The Mafia was thought to have been transferring cash from offshore bank accounts into dollar accounts at Republic via the unconnected Bank of New York. There is no suggestion at this stage that Republic or the Bank of New York are guilty of any wrongdoing but Republic's officials have said recently that they alerted the FBI due to concerns over 'suspicious money transfers'.

When Republic announced two months ago that it would be suspending activities with all but a handful of Russian banks, the reaction from Moscow was furious prompting a flurry of speculation surrounding business elites that has even touched Boris Yeltsin's family.

Significantly, the suspension came into effect on December 1, just two days before Mr Safra's murder and despite the efforts of a string of top New York and IMF bankers to persuade Republic and HSBC to change their mind.

For HSBC, owner of the Midland Bank since 1992, Mr Safra's death poses all kinds of questions. Mr Safra had agreed to remain honorary life president of HSBC Republic, the bank's private banking arm, which handles the finances of 30,000 of the world's richest people.

Mr Safra's death may now mean that many of these individuals, some of which were close personal friends of his, will close their accounts and move their banking relationships elsewhere.

For Sir John, who was said on Friday to be shocked and appalled at the death of his friend, the next few weeks may be equally uncertain.

Although he is a classic British banker of the old school gentlemanly, urbane, unflappable and stiff-upper-lipped Sir John may find himself in the unusual position of having to employ personal bodyguards.The golf-playing banker, who has spent much of his working life in Hong Kong, will have been given the option of employing private security guards.

The British police do not usually provide armed protection for businessmen except in the most extreme circumstances where a specific threat is known to exist.

Mr Safra's body has been returned to his family. Alexander Brug-gmann, a spokesman for the Republic National Bank in Geneva, said Mr Safra would be buried in Jerusalem but he did not yet know when.

[Everyone must have assumed that Mr. Safra would get his lifelong wish to be buried in Israel. Again, why did Lily suddenly change her mind and bury Edmond in Switzerland, of all places?]

 

---

If Monaco thinks Ted Maher is responsible for Mr. Safra's death, then what are they afraid of?  Why won't they allow the overwhelming abundance of exculpatory evidence that exonerates Ted Maher into this so-called "trial?" 

It's a simple question, really.  And it's a question that begs for an answer.   

Think what you like about Ted Maher's innocence or guilt.  I cannot declare with 100% certainty that he is completely innocent myself.   But how will we ever know if all we're allowed to see is some two-bit, coerced confession written in French?  The Monaco police obtained this "confession" only after his  wife's passport was "borrowed" for a few hours and then used to threaten his kids with being orphans.   

Forget guilt or innocence for a moment; there is a much BIGGER issue at stake here.  How can any FReeper condone the fact that a fellow American is not being allowed to defend himself?  How could an American (an American who could be you one day) possibly prove his innocence if he isn't allowed to submit all his evidence?

It's not like it's questionable evidence, either. 

It's DNA analysis and the "victim's" autopsy report!!  How basic is that?!

 

[mr1776]

the important thing to remember, as on all FR threads, is that if a source disagrees with you, make sure to call them names and/or compare them to someone/something that generally has the most negative impression with the most people...

[Nita Nupress]

But with the new info ...

What new info? Please be specific.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"the important thing to remember, as on all FR threads, is that if a source disagrees with you, make sure to call them names and/or compare them to someone/something that generally has the most negative impression with the most people..."

Yep! And the 1st disruptor started on post 2.
He never bothered to read the actual linked story and believed the altered headline.
Why someone would believe the media over actual facts is beyond me.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you, Tonkin. This stinks....Safra, NY Times, international powermongers...and Ted's "confession." Most of all, can anyone explain the following paragraph in the Court TV article:

Before the fire gutted the penthouse, Maher stumbled bleeding from knife wounds into the lobby of Safra's bank building to report the fire. Firefighters, however, were kept from launching a rescue mission for more than an hour after Maher was taken to a hospital because police believed the intruders were still inside.

Who kept the firefighters away from a "deadly" fire for an hour? What kind of a reason is "police believed the intruders were still inside" for not attempting to rescue Mr. Safra?

What will we get next from the authorities in Monaco? My dog ate the evidence?

[TLBSHOW]

Radio-FR is the best. On its way to being a number 1 radio station.

[TLBSHOW]

2 Years without a trail seems like a long time to me. I did not read this whole thread yet but if this news comes from a BS source than it is BS. What has Mrs Maher said about the story here? Like I said I have not read this whole thread. Please bring me up to date as to her say in the matter of this story. Thanks.

Anyone here that backs good things like Radio- FR can't be wrong.

[sinkspur]

Yep! And the 1st disruptor started on post 2.

Disruptor?

YOU said that Ms. Maher was a FReeper. She's a FReeper only because somebody dragged her onto the forum to argue her husband's case.

She's no FReeper.

[Nita Nupress]

She's no FReeper.

LOL! Wait, wait, wait!!  Don't tell me...  You're the FReeper Police now, sink? Is that it?   You're the one who determines whether or not we can call ourselves a real FReeper?

What is a real FReeper anyway?  Please share. Tell us what the qualifications are nowadays to be considered an authentic, legitimate, gen-yew-ine and true-blue Freeper by the illustrious, renowned and legendary sinkspur?

Or should we call you sinkspur? 

Mr. sinkspur?

 

If you weren't so cute, you'd be downright annoying.  

Please ping me back if you want to stop acting so juvenile and talk facts.  Just think!  We can address all the unanswered questions about DNA, autopsies, fire alarms, changed wills, security guards sent home, "multiple ignition sources," unlocked doors that Monoco police couldn't get through, etc., etc.

I couldn't get mr1776 to come back and talk facts, so maybe you will. C'mon... It'll be fun.

[Nita Nupress]

I only have about 30 minutes though, so hurry. I don't like wasting time and I know you don't either.

[sinkspur]

You've obviously invested a lot of time in this case.

I haven't, other than reading the initial Maher posts, and this latest article.

I suspect you'll overpower me with hearsay and innuendo. I don't know enough about this to argue with you.

So, I'll wait until the trial and see what happens.

[Nita Nupress]

Do you honestly think this man is going to get a fair and legitimate trial?

[Nita Nupress]

I suspect you'll overpower me with hearsay and innuendo. I don't know enough about this to argue with you.

And I'm not interested in "arguing." I don't know for sure if this man is guilty or not. All I know is he's not being allowed to present evidence that appears to exonerate him.

You know, if you would take the time to actually read the facts about things before reaching your conclusions, you'd probably find your entire viewpoint of life would change about a lot of things.

As far as this case goes, you would realize that you couldn't be overpowered by hearsay and innuendo. You would be overpowered with all the unanswered questions that Monaco is hiding.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"She's no FReeper."

So how did she continually post on Free Republic if she wasn't a FReeper?
At least learn to disrupt with SOME class.

[Lancey Howard]

You would be overpowered with all the unanswered questions that Monaco is hiding.

Who, exactly, is the source of all those items listed in post #118?
Who, exactly, is it that says that Monaco is hiding something?
Is there anything at all for me to hang my hat on with regard to giving Maher a benefit of the doubt? Anything solid at all? Or does all the information about "exonerating evidence", "missing evidence", drugs and torture, and all the rest come from Maher's camp?
Thanks!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Is there anything at all for me to hang my hat on with regard to giving Maher a benefit of the doubt?"

How about over 2 years with no trial date set.
Now why would a small country like that STILL not be able to set a trial date?
This has been going on since Dec of 1999.
I still believe in innocent until proven guilty.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"What has Mrs Maher said about the story here? Like I said I have not read this whole thread.
Please bring me up to date as to her say in the matter of this story. Thanks"

See post 52, check the last page or so of replies to see what Heidi posted.
I doubt with the personal attacks on her she will come to this BS thread.
Oh, wait, sinkspur says Mrs Maher is not a FReeper. LOL

[Conservative til I die]

When people start saying things like "how much is Monaco paying you" it gets me wondering about the legitimacy of that person.

[Conservative til I die]

Actually, Monaco is sending out mind-control beams from the top of the CourtTV building. Seriously though, whether Ted is innocent or not, putting out conspiracy theories, even half-jokingly diminishes one's arguments and hurts their cause.

[Conservative til I die]

Actually, if he did admit to setting the fire with the intent of rescuing the people, then I don't see how he can say there was no intent. Obviously there was an intent to create a dangerous situation which would require "rescue."