Contempt finding sought in Pemberton case

Laude v. Oban, a petition to hold 11 U.S. security personnel and a Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement Commission official in indirect contempt has been filed in the Regional Trial Court in Olongapo, Philippines. The request calls into question the failure of U.S. authorities to turn Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton of the Marine Corps over the Philippines for service of his prison sentence for homicide. The petition relies on the decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in Nicolas v. Romulo (2009), which also involved the question of who should maintain custody of a U.S. Marine.