Monday, August 29, 2011

USA Political Prisoners

The USA, like China, has political prisoners. This 70-year-old attorney was jailed 14 months without being charged with a crime. His offense was to speak out about court corruption and judicial bribes:

"I ended up here because I did the one thing no other lawyer in California is willing to do. I took on the corruption of the courts," Fine said in a jailhouse interview with CNN.

For the last decade, Fine has filed appeal after appeal against Los Angeles County's Superior Court judges. He says the judges each accept what he calls yearly "bribes" from the county worth $57,000. That's on top of a $178,789 annual salary, paid by the state. The county calls the extra payments "supplemental benefits" -- a way to attract and retain quality judges in a high-cost city.

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