| Five Benning protesters argue cases; 31 await sentencing |
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COLUMBUS, Ga. - Five protesters charged with trespassing as part of a protest against a Fort Benning school for Latin American soldiers defended themselves Thursday in federal court, while 31 others awaited sentencing. Thirty-seven protesters who crossed into Fort Benning during a Nov. 18 demonstration that attracted about 6,500 people went on trial Monday before U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth. During the first two days of the trial, eight pleaded guilty, one was acquitted and the judge found 10 others - who pleaded innocent, but acknowledged they had entered Fort Benning - guilty. Faircloth found 13 others guilty Wednesday, leaving the five remaining defendants to argue their cases. Protesters have been gathering outside Fort Benning's main gate for the annual demonstrations against the Army's School of the Americas for 12 years. They claim some of the school's graduates, including Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, committed human rights abuses in Latin America. The School of the Americas was closed more than 18 months ago, but was reborn as the Defense Department's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. SOA Watch, a group that organizes the protests, says it will continue demonstrating against the new school. "SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school - to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries - remains the same," the group said. Faircloth has suggested during the trial that the defendants visit the institute and try to bring about change through the democratic process. But Chantilly J. Geigle, 19, of Salem, Ore., one of the defendants who appeared before the judge Thursday, said she has lobbied unsuccessfully to have the school closed. "Sometimes we are called to stand up for our country and our family," said Geigle. "I'm going to do that until the SOA - now called WHISC - is closed." |
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