Ex-BP worker faces prison after conviction
NEW ORLEANS – The first criminal trial produced by the Justice Department’s sweeping probe of BP’s massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ended Wednesday with a jury convicting a drilling engineer of trying to obstruct investigators by deleting text messages from his cellular phone.
Kurt Mix, a former BP employee who worked on the company’s efforts to stop the nation’s worst offshore oil spill, embraced stunned relatives and friends after jurors convicted him of an obstruction-of-justice charge punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The jury acquitted Mix of a second count of the same charge.
Mix, a 52-year-old from Katy, Texas, declined to be interviewed after the verdict, but his attorneys vowed to fight his conviction – a major milestone in an investigation that already has resulted in a guilty plea by BP itself.
Mix, who didn’t testify at his two-week trial, remained free on bond pending a sentencing hearing scheduled for March 26.
U.S. attorney denies diplomat mistreated
NEW YORK – The U.S. attorney in New York says an Indian diplomat who was strip-searched following her detention on visa charges was treated very well and was even given coffee and allowed to make phone calls in a car for two hours.
In a highly unusual move for a federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara issued a lengthy statement Wednesday explaining the arrest of Devyani Khobragade and saying she was accorded courtesies most other defendants wouldn’t get.
He says U.S. Department of State agents arrested her discreetly last week and she wasn’t handcuffed or restrained. He says she was searched by a female deputy marshal in private but calls it standard procedure for “every defendant, rich or poor, American or not.”
The diplomat has pleaded not guilty. Her arrest and strip-search have sparked outrage in India and diplomatic tensions.
Egypt files new charges against ousted leader
CAIRO – Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday announced a new trial of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and the top leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, accusing them of conspiring with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and militant groups to carry out a wave of terrorism to destabilize the country.
The charges, which carry a potential death penalty, are the most sweeping and heaviest accusations yet in a series of trials against the Brotherhood. The new trial of Morsi, the three top Brotherhood leaders and 32 other defendants appeared aimed at decisively crippling the top echelons of the group that dominated Egypt’s political scene during Morsi’s one-year presidency.
U.N. urges nations to protect privacy rights
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at protecting the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance in the digital age Wednesday in the most vocal global criticism of U.S. eavesdropping.
Germany and Brazil introduced the resolution following a series of reports of U.S. surveillance, interception and data collection abroad – including on Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel – that surprised and angered friends and allies.
The resolution “affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy.”
Associated Press
