Sunday, November 19, 2006

Colorado AG in Saudi Arabia to "explain" sentencing of Al-Turki

LGF always beats me to stories about this guy. Well, at least I get more traffic than the old hippie:

Colorado’s Attorney General took a trip this week to Saudi Arabia, to explain to the leaders of the religious apartheid state why Colorado sentenced a Saudi man to 28 years in prison for enslaving and sexually assaulting his Indonesian housekeeper: Suthers reassures Saudis.

Because in Saudi Arabia, this sort of thing doesn’t even raise eyebrows.

More from the Rocky story:
Suthers sat knee-to-knee for an hour with King Abdullah and also met with Crown Prince Sultan, Saudi journalists and relatives of Al-Turki during his weeklong trip to the capital city of Riyadh, Deputy Attorney General Jason Dunn said Friday.

"There was a lot of public attention in Saudi Arabia on this case," Dunn said, adding that "misperceptions" there about the U.S. judicial system and Colorado in particular convinced U.S. officials that the highly unusual trip was warranted.
Somehow nobody says what those "misperceptions" (now apparently corrected) might have been. Luckily, Homaidan himself explained at his sentencing:
“Your honor, I am not here to apologize, for I cannot apologize for things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit,” he told Judge Mark Hannen. “The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution,” he said.
Guess who was behind Suthers' week-long trip:
Suthers' trip this week was sponsored by the U.S. State Department in consultation with the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia and Gov. Bill Owens.

While there, Suthers explained how the U.S. judicial system works and said that "in Colorado, crimes of this sort are dealt with severely," Dunn said. "He wasn't apologizing for it [my suspicion of groveling proves baseless!--ed.], but he wanted them to understand why the result of the case was what it was."

The federal government picked up the tab for Suthers to spend the week in Saudi Arabia with Owens' chief counsel, Jon Anderson, Dunn said.
How often do you suppose this is done in other cases involving furriners? A) never; B) no not never; C) not in dis worl', chile.

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