U.S. Held Liable in '90 Kidnap

[Bill Stewart]

It's an excellent ruling, even though it is only allowing the
doctor to recover damages for the parts of the kidnapping that
happened in Mexico and not the time he spent in jail in the US
before he was acquitted.  The Justice Department said they'll appeal,
and given the impending campaign to capture Osama bin Laden,
which this could interfere with, they'll probably win.
But it's the Right Thing to do.

At 12:12 PM 09/13/2001 -0700, Dynamite Bob wrote:
>http://latimes.com/news/local/la-000073744sep13.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dcalifornia
>
>U.S. Held Liable in '90 Kidnap
>
>Ruling: A court says the government-arranged abduction of a Mexican
>doctor sought in the murder of a DEA agent broke international law.
>
>                   By HENRY WEINSTEIN, TIMES LEGAL
>                   AFFAIRS WRITER
>
>                   For the first time, a federal appeals court has ruled
>                   that a U.S. government-instigated kidnapping of an
>                   individual from another country violates
>                   international human rights law and that violation
>                   can be redressed in a U.S. court.
>
>                   The 3-0 ruling this week by the U.S. 9th Circuit
>                   Court of Appeals in San Francisco stems from the
>                   April 1990 abduction of Mexican physician
>                   Humberto Alvarez Machain. Alvarez had been
>                   indicted in Los Angeles three months earlier on
>                   charges that he was involved in the 1985
>                   kidnapping and murder of U.S. DEA Agent Enrique
>                   Camarena in Guadalajara.