March 30, 2002, Jyllands-Posten
By JENS CHRISTIAN HANSEN
It is going to be a long, long summer in the US prison system for
Tvind's leader, Mogens Amdi Petersen. Over the next six months,
he will have to come to terms with living behind thick, American, iron
bars.
And with various theoretical appeals and postponements playing in, he
may have to wait even longer, perhaps until the new year. Amdi
Petersen has yet to experience any victories in the legal system and
it will be at least another six months before he again gets the
chance of glimpsing a bit of light at the end of the long, dark,
tunnel.
The case concerning Amdi's extradition to Denmark won't be
brought
before a judge until 10 AM Pacific time on August 19. Defence lawyer
Robert Shapiro and the prosecution have the time from now until then
to hand in the various documents and claims that they will be
referring to once the court proceedings start on August 19.
At a status meeting on Friday night the defence and prosecution
agreed to a timeline for handing in the documents to the court.
The prosecution must deliver its first document no later than April
22. The defence then has until May 22 to reply to this. The
prosecution then has the opportunity to present further evidence
until June 10. The final deadline for handing in material to the
court is June 17.
The period of time required for the judge to read up on the case
coupled with the summer holidays meant that August 19 would be the
earliest time that the trial could start.
Federal magistrate Victor Kenton will be presiding over the case. At
Friday's hearing Kenton was asked to consider yet another plea
from
Mogens Amdi Petersen to transfer to another prison.
Defence attorney Robert Shapiro has, for the longest while, humbly
been asking that the 63-year old Petersen, who suffers from several
ailments, be moved from the tough Kern County Jail in Bakersfield,
150 km north of Los Angeles, to the more humane Metropolitan
Detention Center in downtown LA.
Jyllands-Posten has obtained information suggesting that Amdi
Petersen had indeed been moved to the MDC, but now he is petitioning
to be transferred back to Kern. This may have something to do with
the fact that the heavily "populated" MDC is very hard to
get into
for Amdi's loyal followers. His girlfriend Kirsten Larsen and two
other female members of the Tvind elite are still in Los Angeles, and
the process of visiting a prisoner is easier at Kern County Jail.
There have been rumours abound that Amdi Petersen, facing the
prospect of spending six more months in jail, is starting to break
and that he is willing to let himself be voluntarily extradited,
under certain condtions. Exactly what these conditions amount to is
unclear, and it is quite doubtful that the Danish police is willing
to pull back any of their charges which include embezzlement and
gross tax fraud.