Judge Orders Release Of Detained Marine Veteran.

*Source: WKTVR

HOPEWELL, Va. (WTVR) – A Hopewell circuit court judge has ordered that a Marine veteran detained over anti-government Facebook posts be released from a psychiatric hospital.

CBS 6 News’ Catie Beck said the Judge Allan Sharrett dismissed the case Thursday against Brandon Raub. The judge said the original petition for Raub’s detention contained no facts. In other words, there was no information on why Raub was being held — and the judge deemed this violated his civil liberties.

As a result, the judge ruled the government had no grounds to hold Raub.

Beck said the judge is in the process of writing an order for Raub’s release. He is expected to be released from a the hospital in Salem, Virginia Thursday afternoon.

The decorated U.S. Marine veteran was questioned by FBI agents about his Facebook postings and then hauled away from his Chesterfield County home in handcuffs last Thursday.

CBS 6 checked his criminal history and found it to be clean. And Brandon Raub’s mother told CBS 6 News’ Mark Holmberg that her son he had no mental health history. [READ MORE: Mother of detained Marine vet says he’s a patriot, not a threat]

“He never was violent or psychotic or anything like that,” Cathleen Thomas told CBS 6. “There were just conversations we had back and forth, very deep.”

BONUS: Full text, Brandon Raub’s proclamation: Take our Republic back

Cell phone video shot by a friend that showed Raub being thrown to the ground and then put into a police car has gone viral on Youtube. His story, portrayed as a patriot whose free speech rights have been violated, has shot across the country.

A number of protestors gathered outside John Randolph Medical Center Monday, where Raub was being detained. Earlier this week, a judge approved a motion to transfer Raub to the Veterans Hospital in Salem.

The Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville-based civil liberties group whose lawyers represented Raub, argued his arrest was was improper and unlawful. However, federal agents contend that Facebook posts made by Raub were “terrorist in nature.”

A former Marine who served two tours in Afghanistan with Raub told CBS 6 News’ Catie Beck Monday that Raub is a courageous and patriotic young man with showed no signs of posttraumatic stress disorder. Additionally, the man said he believes a mental evaluation would find Raub sane — and not someone who is capable of a terroristic threat.

Check back with WTVR.com for the latest updates on this developing story. Catie Beck will also have LIVE reports on CBS 6 News starting at 5 p.m.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Chesterfield Marine veteran detained over Facebook posts

Russian Police Hunt For More Members of Pussy Riot.

*Source: The Guardian

Following sentencing of three women from the all-female group, authorities confirm 'search operations are being conducted'.

Hooded protesters in Zurich join the international outcry over the jailing of three members of Pussy Riot. Photograph: Alessandro Della Bella/EPA

Russian police are searching for more members of Pussy Riot, a spokeswoman said, signalling further pressure on the punk rock band despite an international outcry over jail terms for three women who protested against Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president's critics have condemned the court proceeding that yielded the two-year prison sentences on Friday as part of a clampdown on a protest movement and reminiscent of show trials of dissidents in the Soviet era.

Police said on Monday they were searching for other members of the group in connection with the protest at Moscow's Christ the Saviour cathedral in February, but had not yet identified the suspects.

Police did not say how many people they were looking for, or whether they faced arrest and charges or were wanted merely for questioning. "The necessary search operations are being conducted," a representative of the Moscow police told Interfax news agency.

A police spokeswoman in Moscow's central district confirmed that other, unidentified members of Pussy Riot were being sought in a criminal case that was now separate from that against the three performers who were tried.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred over their performance of a "punk prayer" urging the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

The three wore masks to conceal their identity but were arrested after the protest. Two others who took part remain at large and the group has said it plans further demonstrations against Putin.

In an interview last week, other members of Pussy Riot, their faces hidden behind colourful ski masks, said the trial had only strengthened their resolve.

The European Union and a number of countries have called the sentences disproportionate, and the United States has urged the Russian authorities to review the case.

Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and Samutsevich said they had sought to protest against Putin's close ties with the Russian Orthodox church and had not set out to offend believers.

Putin himself, who returned to the presidency for a third term on 7 May after a four-year spell as prime minister, said before the sentencing that the women did "nothing good" but should not be judged too harshly.

They have already been in jail for about five months, meaning they will serve another 19, and could be freed if Putin were to pardon them. The Orthodox church hinted it would not oppose such a move by appealing, belatedly, for mercy.