Despite numerous requests, including from the Registrar of the ICTR asking for the proceedings to be dropped, the prosecution refused, stating that his release "… will not deter the prosecution as we finalise the case against Mr Erlinder.
Rather, he said, Mr. Mpshe probably intended to remove any doubt that Mr. Zuma's new status as a political leader would deter his prosecution, which Mr. Habib said could begin early next year.
In one post last week, Mr. Thurlbeck described the committee as "obsequious," and said that it was "busily heaping the corpses of its most loyal servants onto a funeral pyre" in the hope of deterring any prosecution of News Corporation in the United States under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
As Daniel Richman, a Columbia law professor and a former Southern District prosecutor, told me, "The average hedge-fund guy who's lawyered up and a serious reader of the relevant publications is going to be more deterred by prosecution than the average dope dealer".
The 'Pandora's Box' The overthrow and killing of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam in a coup by officers in November 1963, the general wrote, "opened a Pandora's box of political turmoil seriously deterring effective prosecution of the war and leading directly to the necessity of introducing American troops" to fight "if South Vietnam was not to fall".
In answer to questions about the allegations of threatened witnesses, he added: "We will never let intimidation deter us from prosecution.
A successful prosecution could deter others from leaving for ISIS territory, while a failed prosecution could give would-be fighters a sense of impunity.
"There is a very strong belief," he said, "that criminal prosecution will deter this conduct in the future".
Ms. Bruenn said she hoped that the increased threat of prosecution might deter executives from breaking accounting rules.
Arguing that a tough sentence would deter other leakers, the prosecution had pushed for a sentence of 60 years during the hearing in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Mr. Thurmond was widely praised for his efforts, and he said he believed the prosecution would deter lynchings in the future.
