Cochran Comes To The Rescue
Can celebrity criminal defense attorney Johnnie Cochran pull off an O.J.-style upset in Lagos? This week Cochran will observe a key pretrial hearing for Mohammed Abacha, eldest son of the late Nigerian military dictator Sani Abacha, and issue a set of findings to foreign diplomats, the United Nations, human-rights groups and others.
The younger Abacha, who allegedly manages the family's assets, is charged in the 1996 murder of Kudirat Abiola, a pro-democracy activist who was married to Abacha's main political foe. Cochran won't say who hired him, except that it was "friends of Nigeria"--not the Abacha family. The Abachas maintain that the murder charges are trumped up. They also dispute the numerous published reports that Maryam Abacha tried, shortly after her husband's death, to leave the country with 38 suitcases stuffed with cash. A Cameroon-based barrister for the family tells NEWSWEEK that "at no point has Mrs. Abacha attempted to leave Nigeria without prior notice to the Nigerian authorities." He adds that the government has placed undue restrictions on her movements. "Her most recent request to travel to Mecca was not granted by the Nigerian president," he says. "Further, a request for her 6-year-old son, Mustapha, who is in urgent need of specialized orthopedic surgery, to travel in the company of her elder sister was also turned down."
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Devin Gordon is the editor of Newsweek Digital, the umbrella company encompassing Newsweek's various web properties, including Newsweek.com and Newsweek Mobile. Previously, from June 2007 to June 2009, he was senior editor of the magazine's Periscope section, which was nominated for a National Magazine Award for "best section" in 2008. Previously, he was a senior writer, writing about film, television, sports and popular culture for the Arts and Entertainment and Society sections. He was part of the Newsweek reporting team for the past three Olympic games, including the Salt Lake City winter games in 2002, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where he covered swimmer Michael Phelps, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, for which he wrote Newsweek's cover story about skier Bode Miller.
During his tenure at the magazine, Gordon has written about everything from HBO's "The Wire" to rock band Coldplay to Oscar-winner film directors Ang Lee and Peter Jackson. He profiled "Curb Your Enthusiasm" creator Larry David on the eve of the series' fourth season debut, and "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan just prior to the film's record breaking release. For Newsweek's year-end double-issue of 2002, he wrote "The Matrix Makers," (Jan. 6, 2003), a cover story about the two upcoming "Matrix" sequels—the first behind-the-scenes look at the new films by any publication.
Gordon joined Newsweek in 1998, after graduating from Duke University. His first cover story was "The Dominator" (June 18, 2001), an examination of what makes Tiger Woods tick. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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