University of Washington law student sues CIA over data on Salvadoran Army officer
Source: Seattle Times
University of Washington law student sues CIA over data on Salvadoran Army officer
15 minutes ago
By Mike Carter
The Seattle Times (Tribune News Service)
Published: October 5, 2015
A University of Washington law-school student has filed a federal Freedom of Information lawsuit alleging the Central Intelligence Agency has illegally withheld information about an El Salvador Army officer suspected of human-rights violations during that countrys civil war.
Mina Manuchehri is a fellow at the UWs Center for Human Rights and a third-year law student. She alleges in a suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court that the CIA has withheld records regarding retired Salvadoran Army Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Perez, who is under criminal investigation in his own country for alleged involvement in the killings of civilians during El Salvadors 1980s civil war against leftist rebels.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Manuchehri by attorneys from the Seattle law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, alleges the CIA has withheld documents sought under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), even though some have been released elsewhere.
The action also challenges the CIAs denial of records relating to UCLA professor Philippe Bourgois, who survived a massacre allegedly led by Ochoa Perez in 1981 in Santa Cruz, El Salvador.
Read more: http://www.stripes.com/news/us/university-of-washington-law-student-sues-cia-over-data-on-salvadoran-army-officer-1.371811
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Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Perez
(Man on the left, Col Ochoa Perez)
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