The following was sent by Phil, it is his comments inside the brackets

Hearing in Billionaire's Fiery Death

by Deborah Mitchell

http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-01-07/News_and_Views/Daily_Dish/a-94914.asp

Ted Maher of Dutchess County, the nurse charged by Monaco authorities with arson after a suspicious blaze in which billionaire banker Edmond Safra was killed, faces a judge in the small European principality Tuesday.

But a recent Dominick Dunne article in Vanity Fair implied that Maher was being set up as a patsy to take the fall for Safra's mysterious death.

That's certainly the way Maher's wife, Heidi, sees it: "I would not be fighting for this man if I didn't know he was innocent," Heidi tells The Insider.

Safra, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, had round-the-clock nursing care, as well as a ubiquitous Mossad-trained security team. But on Dec. 3, 1999, Safra's ever-present bodyguards inexplicably had the night off. Intruders broke in to Safra's penthouse, and in an ensuing scuffle, Maher was stabbed in the abdomen and thigh.

"The only fire my husband lit was a candle underneath [smoke alarms] to bring the firemen there," charges Heidi, who claims that the police wouldn't come when called about the intruders. "He was trying to save Mr. Safra, and he's being blamed for it."

Monaco prosecutor Daniel Serdet charged that Maher, "psychologically fragile and under the influence of medication," set the blaze so he could save his boss and become a hero.

[Phil's note: Contemporaneous reports said: "
Prosecutors did not rule out the possibility that the intruders were planning to assassinate Mr Safra, and that they might have been connected to the Russian mafia or other organised crime. Mr Serdet said two suspects were questioned and then released."]

But Heidi has a copy of Ted's medical records, which say he tested negative for drugs.

Ted's lawyer in Monaco, Donald Manasse, has already argued in pre-trial motions that the arson charge should be dropped because "there was no criminal intent in [Ted's] actions." The judge turned him down, but Manasse is appealing it on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Maher's family has put up a Web site,

http://www.tedmaher.com

[Phil's footnote: Edmond Safra's widow Lily Safra retains Stanley S. Arkin, defender of Konstantin Kagalovsky and Natasha Kagalovsky, Russian money launderers, he of Russia's Menatep [formerly one of its largest, now insolvent], she of BONY, megatarget of massive money-laundering investigation.]

Safra's Republic Bank laundered $4.8 billion in Russian IMF loans per Geneva chief prosecutor who says Safra murdered for cooperating with FBI in matter.

As Lily is now the richest woman in the world, it's time to ask why she didn't unlock the bathroom and just let him live. Oh, and why she dismissed the security team that night. And, one last thing, why she pencilled in Ted as duty nurse at the last minute. The death: qui bono?

Dominick Dunne and Donald Manasse have had death threats made--yet Ted Maher remains in the Monaco cell
400 DAYS TODAY
without trial!

Phil Dragoo
phildragoo@att.net