Lay surrenders to face Enron charges
HOUSTON, July 8 (UPI) -- Former Enron Chairman Key Lay turned himself into the FBI in Houston Thursday to face charges in the collapse of the energy giant more than two years ago.
Lay, 62, spoke to reporters outside the FBI office when he arrived, saying, "Nice of you all to show up this morning," the Houston Chronicle reported.
The former high-profile Houston businessman and philanthropist was led away in handcuffs to the federal courthouse where he will hear the charges later this morning.
"I have done nothing wrong, and the indictment is not justified," Lay said in a statement released Wednesday night when news of the indictment leaked.
The Enron grand jury delivered the sealed indictment to a U.S. magistrate Wednesday afternoon. The charges will be revealed when Lay makes his court appearance.
The indictment was returned 2 1/2 years after the collapse of Enron in the largest U.S. bankruptcy at that time. Scores of shareholders and employees lost investments or retirements.
Guantanamo inmates to get speedy hearings
WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- In response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Pentagon has announced all 595 terror suspects held at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay prison will get speedy hearings.
The hearings will determine if each of the men meets the definition of "enemy combatant," which would justify their detention. The Supreme Court last week ruled the U.S. government was jailing terrorism suspects without due process.
The administration has used the enemy combatant designation to argue the detainees do not warrant some protections afforded by the Geneva Conventions, the Washington Post said Thursday.
Wednesday's decision says by July 17, every detainee will be notified that his status as an enemy combatant will be reviewed in the new hearings and has a right to a hearing in federal court.
Each one will receive the help of a non-lawyer military officer acting as a "personal representative," who will assist him in preparing for the combatant status hearing. Detainees will be offered interpreters, and will be allowed to testify, present evidence, call witnesses "if readily available" and question witnesses.
Militants want say in Palestinian affairs
JERUSALEM, July 8 (UPI) -- The militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade wants more of a say in the administration of the Palestinian Authority, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
The group, the armed wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah political movement, presented a 10-page document to PA officials calling for an ethical purging of the authority.
Al-Aqsa called for the expulsion and prosecution of government officials involved in corruption, a wholesale purge of relatives and cronies of senior officials from government payrolls and a halt to the practice of government officials monopolizing sectors of the Palestinian economy to line "their private pockets."
It also demanded "eradication of the corruption in most of the PLO embassies and representatives" overseas.
Spokesmen for Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismissed the document, with Arafat's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh saying it did not sound "serious."
Lindh killer wins psychiatric appeal
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, July 8 (UPI) -- The convicted killer of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh will not serve life in prison, but rather in a secure psychiatric facility, the BBC reports.
An appeals court overturned the prison sentence for Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, but upheld his conviction for murder. His defense had sought the lesser charge of manslaughter, arguing Mijailovic had not intended to kill the politician.
The popular woman many believed had the potential to become prime minister was stabbed Sept. 10 while she was shopping in a Stockholm department store. She died the next day.
After his arrest, an initial psychiatric assessment concluded Mijailovich was not mentally ill when he killed Lindh. But the appeals court said the man needed psychiatric care because he was a "traumatized person with significant psychiatric problems."
He will now be moved from prison to a closed psychiatric ward, the report said.
