Urgent ELP! Bulletin (23rd of November 2002)

Dear friends

Well it all happens at once doesn't it. ELP has loads of news for you:

1) Volkert pleads guilty

2) Two new AR prisoners

3) Update on Benjamin (USA Animal Rights Prisoner)

4) Three new Ploughshares prisoners

5) Plougshares prisoner released

6) Jose Bove gets 14 months imprisonment (BBC report)

1) Volkert pleads guilty

It has just been reported on the international media that Dutch Animal/Earth

Liberation activist Volkert van der Graaf has admitted killing the

xenophobic Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. According to the mainstream media,

he carried out the murder to protect "vulnerable members of society".

More news as it comes.

2) Two new AR prisoners

Two American animal rights activists have been remanded into custody on

charges relating to their SHAC campaigning. For more details check out the

ELP website www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk The two are:

Jennifer Greenberg

3100201610

Rose M. Singer Center

1919 Hazen St.

East Elmherst, NY 11370

USA

Joshua Schwartz

BBKC

125 White St.

New York, NY 10013

USA

3) Update on Benjamin (USA Animal Rights Prisoner)

American SHAC prisoner Benjamin Persky has reached a plea bargain with the

courts and pleaded guilty to a Class D felony. He is due to be sentenced on

December 11th 2002. The hearing will be at 100 Center Street in NYC, Part

71. The hearing will be at 9:30am. Benjamin would really appreciate

supporters turning up at court, so if anyone is in the US and is in the area

please do go along and give him your support. As soon as Benjamin is

sentenced he is likely to be moved to a new prison address. This address

will be posted up onto www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk as soon as it is know.

4) Three new Ploughshares prisoners

A couple of years ago four American nuns calling themselves "Sacred Earth &

Space Plowshares" disarmed weapons of mass murder at Peterson Air Force Base

in the USA. On Sunday October 6th 2002, three of the original four Sisters

visited an N-8 missile silo in northern Colorado and using the name "Sacred

Earth & Space Plowshares II" disarmed the equipment that transports nuclear

missiles to their firing points. All three have been remanded. Please send

letters of support to:

Ardeth Platte

PO Box 518

Georgetown

CO80444

USA

Carol Gilbert

PO Box 518

Georgetown

CO80444

USA

Jackie Hudson

PO Box 518

Georgetown

CO80444

USA

5) Plougshares prisoner released

ELP is pleased to let everyone know that Rev. Steve Kelly has been released

from prison.

6) Jose Bove gets 14 months imprisonment

And finally......the following news item was spotted on the BBC website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2492139.stm

French radical farmer Jose Bove will be sent to jail for 14 months

for two offences of destroying genetically modified (GM) crops.

Bove had been seeking to have his sentences of six months and eight

months overturned, but France's highest court, the Cour de

Cassation, ruled against him.

It said he should serve the six-month sentence for a 1999 attack on

a field of GM rice near the southern city of Montpellier.

The decision automatically meant that he should also serve the

longer sentence, for a similar attack in 1998.

Appeals

He will not have to go to jail until formally notified of the

court's decision.

Bove said he would appeal to French President Jacques Chirac to

pardon him.

"Of course we cannot ask him to overturn the verdict, but he has

the power to stop the sentence being applied," he said in a

statement.

"The ball is in his court now."

His lawyer, Francois Roux, said he would also be appealing to the

European Court of Human Rights.

Bove, a sheep farmer from near Millau in southern France, shot to

national prominence after leading protesters in tearing down a

partially-built local McDonald's restaurant in 1999.

McDonald's sentence

He and his supporters have undertaken a series of raids to destroy

fields where the crops are grown, in what they say is a struggle

for the "right to live in a healthy environment".

Last month he was fined 3,000 euros for an attack in 2000 on a

field near the southern French town of Gaudies.

France grows experimental GM crops on about 100 sites, all of which

have been approved by the government.

His attack on the McDonalds restaurant earned him 61 days in jail,

which he completed in August this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Prison is a weapon used by the State to crush individuals who step out of

line" (Michael Collins - former Mayday 2000 prisoner)

Support All Animal & Earth Liberation Prisoners

Spirit of Freedom (Earth Liberation Prisoners)

c/o Cornerstone Resource Centre, Leeds, LS7 3HB, England

E-Mail < earthlibprisoner@mail.com >



Earth Liberation Prisoners Newsletter/Urgent ELP! Bulletin

c/o BM Box 2407, London, WC1N 3XX, England

E-Mail < AnimalEarthLiberation@Bigfoot.Com >

North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network

POB 50082, Eugene, OR 97405, USA

E-Mail < naelpsn@tao.ca >