GPB News Archive

GPB's News site has MOVED!

Check out our completely redesigned webpage at

http://www.gpb.org/news

for the latest in local and statewide Georgia news!

Search This Blog

Blog Archive:

Monday, January 26, 2009

Ft. Benning Protesters Sentenced

Five protesters have been ordered to spend 60 days in prison on federal trespassing charges after a rally in Georgia last November to demand the closing of the former School of the Americas.

Demonstrators blame the school, which trained generations of military officials, for human rights abuses in Latin America. They have rallied at Fort Benning every November for years against the school, currently known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

Eric LeCompte, with the group School of the Americas Watch, says an Episcopal priest from New York and a Roman Catholic nun from Ohio were among those sentenced Monday in federal court in Georgia. He says a sixth protester, age 68, was given six months of house arrest because of medical problems.

(AP)

GPB News Team: