Maximum Federal Prison Sentences for Direct Action Opposing the School of the Americas

Human Rights Advocates Given Maximum
Federal Prison Sentences of Six Months for Direct Action Opposing the
School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC)

Judge Finds SOA Watch Activists
Guilty for Carrying Protest against the SOA/WHINSEC onto Fort Benning,
Issues Arrest Warrant for Michael Walli for Refusing to Appear for the
Trial.

On Monday, January 25, 2010, U.S.
Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth sentenced three human rights advocates
to six months in federal prison for carrying a protest against the
School of the Americas onto the Fort Benning military base in Georgia.
This school, re-named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation, is a controversial U.S. Army training school for Latin
American soldiers.

Father
Roy Bourgeois, a Roman Catholic priest and the founder of SOA Watch,
the organization that works to close the School of the Americas said "Judge
Faircloth has sentenced our sister and brothers to 6 months in federal
prison for speaking the truth about the SOA/WHINSEC. We are saddened by
the court's continued blindness and hardness of heart, but we are
stronger than ever in solidarity. These sentences are symbolic of our
nation's misdirection, but they are also great steps forward for our
resistance movement. It is truer today, than ever before, that although
they jail the resisters they have not, and cannot, jail the resistance!"

The "SOA 4" are:

Nancy Gwin, long-time activist from Syracuse, New York - sentenced to six months in prison
Father Louie Vitale, veteran and priest from Oakland, CA - sentenced to six months in prison
Ken Hayes, SOA Watch Council member from Austin, TX - sentenced to six months in prison

Michael Walli,
a member of the Catholic Worker movement from Washington, DC refused to
appear for the trial in Georgia. Walli had told the court during his
November arraignment that he would not pay any bail and that he would
not voluntarily return for the trial. "I walk out and it's goodbye"
Walli told Judge Mallon Faircloth. Michael Walli made good on his
promise and on Monday, Judge Mallon Faircloth issued a warrant for
Michael Walli's arrest.

The "SOA 4" were among the tens of
thousands who gathered on November 20-22, 2009 outside the gates of
Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia to demand a change in U.S. policy in
Latin America and the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC. The group peacefully
crossed onto Fort Benning while thousands stood vigil at the gates of
the base in memory of those killed by graduates of the institution.

The
SOA/WHINSEC, a military training facility for Latin American security
personnel, made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training
manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and
execution.