Free Republic

GENEVA (7 September 2018) – UN human rights experts* have appealed to Iran to halt the imminent executions of Iranian Kurd prisoners Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, amid serious concerns that they did not receive a fair trial and were tortured during pre-trial detention. They also reiterated calls to halt the execution of Mr. Ramin Hossein Panahi. “We urge the Government of Iran to immediately halt their executions and to annul the death sentences against them in compliance with its international obligations,” the experts said in a joint statement, following reports that they will be executed on 8 September.“We are alarmed...

The Trump administration is considering sending hundreds of captured ISIS fighters held in Syria to an Iraqi prison or the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, NBC News reported Monday. Five U.S. officials told NBC that several of the highest-value fighters could possibly go to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Those detainees include Alexandar Amon Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, two Islamic State fighters who took part in killing Americans, including journalists James Foley Steven Sotloff, and other Western hostages. A group of about 600 ISIS fighters are currently being held by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in a rebel-controlled area...

A top U.N. rights expert called Thursday for North Korea to begin freeing prisoners under a "general amnesty" ahead of next week's historic nuclear summit. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, called on Pyongyang to "issue a general amnesty to release hundreds of prisoners." He hailed North Korea's recent release of three U.S. prisoners, and urged the country to broaden its "amnesty" to anyone being arbitrarily detained there, which he said was basically all prisoners. "There is no rule of law in the country... no due process of law," he told reporters in...

Democratic National Committee Vice-Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn) called Republican efforts to encourage prison inmates to participate in Bible studies "an attempt to poach voters who rightly ought to be supporting Democrats." "While the Bible studies message is not overtly political it conveys values that implicitly support the GOP agenda," Ellison contended. "Take the admonition 'thou shalt not steal.' This insinuates a personal right to property that runs counter to our Party's belief that property ought to redistributed more fairly. I mean, a lot of guys are in jail because they tried to implement a redistribution on their own initiative....

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that three American prisoners released from North Korea were headed home.

“Peppa” the chicken struts around in his newly-made sweater. (Washington Corrections Center for Women) So, uhm, prisoners at Gig Harbor’s Washington Corrections Center for Women are spending some of their time behind bars knitting sweaters for chickens because, well, they’re cold. It’s a weird and, admittedly, adorable story. The WCCW currently has two chicken coops. The fertilizer produced is used on the prison’s gardens, which grows food for local food banks. But given the chilly temperatures, the chickens are freezing. That got Human Resources Consultant Paula Andrew (aka the “Chicken Lady”) thinking: why not get the prisoners to knit them...

About 1 in 5 inmates in Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody is foreign-born, a Department of Justice (DOJ) report reveals. A new report from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ DOJ showed that out of the 185,507 inmates currently in BOP custody, 39,455 of the inmates — or about 21 percent — were foreign-born who either entered the U.S. illegally or legally. According to the newly released data, 51 percent of the 39,455 foreign-born inmates in BOP custody are illegal aliens who are subject to final deportation orders. Another 38 percent of the foreign-born inmate population remain under investigation by the Immigration and Customs...

SEOUL/TORONTO — North Korea freed a Canadian pastor serving a life sentence on humanitarian grounds, the official KCNA news agency said on Wednesday, just hours after the United States warned it would counter any threat from the North with "fire and fury." There was no clear connection between the release of Hyeon Soo Lim and the heightened rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang. Canadian officials said on Tuesday a delegation led by the country's national security adviser had gone to North Korea to discuss Lim's case. Lim, who served in one of the largest churches in Canada, had been sentenced to...

If President-elect Donald Trump decides to make good on his campaign pledge to "load up" the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with new domestic terror suspects caught in the US -- including American citizens -- legal experts say he is asking for an unprecedented constitutional showdown. Voters first received a peek at Trump's stance on Guantanamo Bay back in 2015 when talking points on various policy questions were leaked ahead of a Republican debate. On the issue of whether he would close the detention facility, the memo stated: "No. I would also take away the passports of Americans who...

The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has spent weeks completely cut off from the outside world after its telecommunications network collapsed. Its isolation is so complete that no one is even sure who the country's president is any more. Nauru, an isolated speck in the southwest Pacific with a population of 12,000, is in a "critical situation", according to the last message received by the outside world. That came via an address given three weeks ago by the man last believed to be running the country, President Bernard Dowiyogo, details of which were given on Friday by Radio Australia....

Federal convicts told a judge they were forced to watch Hillary Clinton’s convention speech at the federal prison where they’re being held — but said the prison imposed a blackout on Donald Trump’s speech, tuning the facility’s televisions to other channels. The felons are trying to join the federal case against President Obama’s 2014 deportation amnesty, saying that Mr. Obama is discriminating against U.S. citizens caught breaking the law by punishing them, even as he attempts to grant work permits and taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants.

It is unconstitutional for defendants to be held in jail simply because they can't afford to post bail, the Justice Department asserted this week. This marks the first time that the federal government has sided with this position before an appeals court, according to NBC News. In a friend of the court briefing, the DOJ said: "Bail practices that incarcerate indigent individuals before trial solely because of their inability to pay for their release violate the Fourteenth Amendment." The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no citizen can be denied "life, liberty or property, without due process of law."

“President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday that he is shortening prison sentences for 214 federal prisoners,” dailycaller.com reports. “56 of whom have firearms related convictions on their records. The mass commutation is the largest ever issued in a single day U.S. history, the White House said in a press release.” Click here to read the doc, which describes the crimes committed.The commutations all take effect December 1. On that date, the prison system will release all 214 federal prisoners named. The commutations are almost all related to offenders serving time for drug offenses. Dealing, not using. And some manufacturing, too. Not to mention...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is cutting short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 serving life sentences. The White House says it's the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent drug offenses. The commutations bring to 562 the total number of sentences Obama has shortened. The White House says that's more than the past nine presidents combined. Almost 200 of those who have benefited were serving life sentences. White House counsel Neil Eggleston says Obama will continue granting clemency to more inmates...

President Barack Obama on Wednesday cut short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 life sentences, in what the White House called the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. ADVERTISEMENT Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent drug crimes, reflecting Obama's long-stated view that the U.S. needs to remedy the consequences of decades of sentencing requirements that put tens of thousands of Americans behind bars for far too long. Obama has pushed for a broader fix to criminal justice laws and has used the aggressive pace of his commutations in...

Radical left-wingers want to free half the nation’s prisoners—including many violent offenders—a move that would cause an upsurge in crime rates for decades to come. To many of today’s leftists criminality itself is an illegitimate concept. The mindless chanting of the slogan “no one is illegal” at open-borders rallies is part of the same school of thought. Spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union and bankrolled by radical speculator George Soros, the “end mass incarceration” movement wants to reduce the U.S. prison population by 50 percent within the next 10 to 15 years. This specific push is called the “Cut50”...

Seven years after the release of shocking images of tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the Supreme Court has turned back the appeal of 26 inmates from that infamous facility who wanted to sue two military contractors for damages. The military's official investigation revealed "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" committed by military personnel and civilian contractors who provided support services at the prison. More than two dozen soldiers were reprimanded or court-martialed for their conduct. But those who were tortured want to sue two firms that hired the civilians who helped the military with...

We may have negotiated the release of 4 of our countrymen by promising the Iranians seven sanctions violators in return, but that doesn't mean Iran is getting those seven nationals back.

The White House denied Tuesday that the U.S. paid Iran $1.7 billion as ransom to gain the release of American prisoners, saying the payment settled a long-running claim by Tehran over military equipment. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the payment last weekend was “a very good deal for taxpayers” because Iran was actually seeking interest payments of up to $8 billion for the decades-old claim. “Our exposure when it came to paying interest could have been much higher,” Mr. Earnest said. A spokeswoman for Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, criticized the administration for paying “ransom” to gain the...

Iran has freed four prisoners from the United States, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, Iran's semi-official FARS news agency reported Saturday, quoting Tehran's prosecutor. According to FARS, it has freed Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, who had been held on various charges. The news agency did not name the fourth person released. The release is part of a prisoner swap deal in which the United States reportedly freed six Iranian-Americans held on charges related to sanctions against Iran, FARS said.