Oakland outraged by Mesherle verdict: involuntary manslaughter

Ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) cop Johannes Mehserle at work, January 2009.  

Oakland - Riots broke out in Oakland, California, on the night of Thursday, July 8th, after a Los Angeles jury in the Johannes Mehserle case reported a verdict of "involuntary manslaughter, with a gun."

Involuntary manslaughter calls for a 2 to 4 year sentence, "with a gun" seems to add 1, 3, 4, or 10 years, but reports of sentencing possibilities still vary widely, as attention turns to the upcoming August 7th sentence hearing, in Los Angeles.

Mehserle, a 28-year-old white ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit policeman, pulled his gun and shot Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old African American apprentice butcher and father of a four-year-old daughter, in the back, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day, 2009.   Video records show that Grant was prostrate on the BART platform, with hands restrained behind his back when Mehserle shot him.   The defense argued that Mehserle had mistaken his gun for his tazer.

Read more at Digital Journal, http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/294430.

Kagame arrests another journalist, UK defunds its Media Council

07.09.2010 - Two weeks after the murder of Rwandan journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage, following his criticism of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Rwandan Police arrested Agnes Uwimana, the director of a privately owned newspaper.

Uwimana, prior to her arrest this week, served a one-year jail sentence for defamation and promoting division, a crime equivalent to "politics" in Rwanda, attempting to challenge President Kagame's power or version of the tragic 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

Read more at Digital Journal, http://www.digitaljournal.com/user/515407/news.

Kagame media reports arrest of "suspect" who confesses to murdering journalist to avenge 1994 genocide crime

The self-described "Government Supporting Daily, The New Times," a.k.a. Kagame Media, reports that an unnamed suspect has confessed to murdering journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage, after Rugambage reported that Rwandan President Paul Kagame had ordered the assassination attempt on exile Rwandan General Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa on June 19th.

The New Times reports that the suspect "told Police that he was avenging the death of a family member, who was allegedly killed by Rugambage during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi."   I imagine the "suspect"---if he exists---will enjoy a very comfortable early retirement.

If a C02 explosion from Lake Kivu kills everyone on both the Rwanda and Congo sides, thanks to Kagame's careless natural gas drilling, he and his "Government Supporting Daily," The New Times, will no doubt say that the lake finally blew to avenge 1994 genocide crime against the Tutsi.

Here's the news, in Rwanda's "Government Supporting Daily, The New Times,"  dutifully reproduced on AllAfrica.com, headquartered in Washington D.C.:

Government Supporting Daily


Man confesses to killing journalist
By Our reporter

Internal Security Minister, Fazil Musa Harelimana
KIGALI - One of the suspects arrested in connection with the Thursday night killing of Jean Leonard Rugambage, a local Journalist, has confessed to committing the crime, Internal Security Minister, Musa Fazil Harelimana, said yesterday.

Speaking at the monthly Presidential news conference, Harelimana said that the suspect told Police that he was avenging the death of a family member, who was allegedly killed by Rugambage during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The suspect, who also led investigators to the scene where he buried the pistol allegedly used in the murder, accused Rugambage of killing his brother who used to work for Banque Populaire in Kamonyi, Southern Rwanda, before the Genocide.

According to a Police statement released Sunday, Rugambage was once charged by Gacaca courts, was imprisoned for a period of three years, but later released in 2007.

Investigations into the case continue.

Ends