Calling him a “terrorist” and following through on his threat to more than quadruple the recommended sentence, judge Dee Benson Thursday sentenced William Viehl to two years in federal prison. It is the first sentence handed down under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.

Feb 7th, 2010
by Peter Young
Simulposted with Voice of the Voiceless
Judge quadruples the recommended sentence for A.L.F

Calling him a “terrorist” and following through on his threat to more than quadruple the recommended sentence, judge Dee Benson Thursday sentenced William Viehl to two years in federal prison. It is the first sentence handed down under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.

Background

Viehl was charged last year under AETA for the release of 650 mink from the McMullin Fur Farm in South Jordan, Utah after cell phone records and a car key found at the scene were used to tie him to the raid. Graffiti found at the scene read “A.L.F.” and “We are watching”. Over one year later, mink are still being found living wild in the vicinity of the farm.

After an 11-month court battle, Viehl accepted a non-cooperating plea bargain in which the prosecution agreed to recommend a sentence of 6 months. In November the judge threw out the deal, stating the recommendation was “too low” and did “not match the severity of the crime”. The sentencing was held over for February, where Thursday he sentenced Viehl to 24 months in prison.

The Sentencing: Report From Court

Court convened Thursday at 11:30am in downtown Salt Lake City. The prosecution first addressed the court. Refraining from the theatrics of past hearings such as a slide show showing firebombed cars from previous A.L.F. actions, the prosecutor made a very brief statement again recommending a six month sentence, and sat down.

Viehl’s attorney addressed the judge, also asking for a six month sentence. She highlighted previous animal rights cases where the “crimes” alleged would legally be considered more serious, yet resulted in sentences lower than or equal to the sentence being threatened by the judge (at previous hearings, Benson threatened a sentence of two years or more).

Judge Benson talked about the attention the case has received, and restated that he felt the recommended sentence was too low.

Lodder and Blackridge fur farms: guilt by association

He expressed his belief Viehl was involved with more Animal Liberation Front actions than those he was charged with, making clear he would be sentencing Viehl for crimes to which little to no evidence linked him, and for which he has not been charged.

He began this point by bringing up the A.L.F. raid of the Lodder fur farm in Kaysville, Utah. 6,000 mink were released from this farm in September, 2008. The judge pointed out Viehl was pulled over near the farm several weeks before the raid. The judge cited a police report which stated he was stopped dressed all in black, and a second occupant of the vehicle was seen stuffing a ski mask under a car seat. A subsequent (warrantless) search of the vehicle allegedly turned up wire cutters. Weeks later, 6,000 mink were released from the fur farm.

He also mentioned an alleged “attempted” mink release at Blackridge Farms in Hyrum, Utah. Viehl and a second person were allegedly followed by a mink farmer after they were seen passing the farm late one night in October, 2008. The judge stated that after noticing he was being followed, Viehl pulled the car over and approached the farmer’s vehicle to ask why she was following them. Benson pointed out the vehicle was the same vehicle said to be used in the McMullin raid.

The evidence

The judge admitted the only evidence against Viehl was a car key found at the farm the morning after the raid, and cell phone records which placed Viehl’s phone near the McMullin farm the night of the mink release. He stated that even with the cell phone records, “without that key, we may not be here right now”.

Benson retreated to the emotive language both him and the prosecutor have made familiar in this case, stating Viehl “caused terror”, and that he knows of no other word for releasing animals from cages than “terrorism”.

“We have so many rights to properly change laws” in this country, he said. This was a naive or deliberately misleading statement while two SHAC 7 defendants and Kevin Olliff remain in jail for attempting to affect change in a legal, above-ground fashion through protest and outreach.

Judge: Viehl “heavily involved” in other A.L.F. raids

Consistent with previous statements from the judge, he linked Viehl to a broader conspiracy, stating he had “no doubt [Viehl] was heavily involved” in other Animal Liberation Front actions. He called him a “copycat”, and said the sentence would be aimed towards deterring future activists from carrying out A.L.F. actions.

With that, he handed down his sentence: Two years in prison, three years probation, nearly $66,000 in restitution, and no contact with the Animal Liberation Front.

With credit for time served, good time, and halfway house, Viehl expects to be released in August.

- Peter Young

Write William “BJ” Viehl:

William James Viehl
Inmate #2009-05735
Davis County Jail
800 West State St.
Farmington, UT 84025

Contact: info@voiceofthevoiceless.org or email VOV here.Become vegan: Learn why a vegan diet is essential for the animals and this planet. Watch Meet Your Meat.
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Peter Young is TPC’s Senior Editor of Direct Action and the creator of VoiceOfTheVoiceless.org. Young is a veteran animal liberation activist and former political prisoner convicted for his role in liberating thousands of animals from fur farms across the country. Emerging from a grand jury indictment, 7 years of being wanted by the FBI, a federal prison sentence, and nearly 15 years in the animal liberation movement; today Peter is a frequent lecturer at universities and events, writer on liberation movements, and unapologetic supporter of those who work outside the law to achieve human, earth, and animal liberation.

2009 was a particularly bad year for the Italian prison system, especially if you happened to be one of its ‘guests’ having to suffer the severe overcrowding that was exacerbated by an overall lack of funding in the system. As a result, the summer saw a series of prison protests, including mass hunger strikes and riots, as well an explosion in a historically already high rate of suicide, self-harm and other ‘suspicious’ deaths.

This overcrowding crisis means that the prison population currently stand at 64,910, its highest level since 1946, a population housed in jails built for only 43,480. The most obvious effect of this overcrowding is on the suicide rate. In the decade 2000-09, there were 1,568 deaths, 565 (36%) of which were suicides (with 12 times that number of attempted suicides). Last year there were 174 deaths in Italian prisons, of which 72 (41%) were classified as suicide. That is 27% higher than the average for the previous decade, against a 10% for the overall death rate. This is the highest suicide rate since 2001 (12.11 per 10,000 vs. 12.52), and by far the highest number for more than 20 years. It is also the highest in Western Europe apart from France, Luxembourg and Switzerland! And just to reinforce the dangers of being a prisoner in Italy, in the first 2 weeks of 2010 there have already been 5 suicides.

The initial response of the Italian government to the unrest last summer was to announce a series of draft emergency plans last August. These plans have now come to fruition with the announcement of a yearlong state of emergency throughout the Italian prison system. Presented to the Council of Ministers on the 12 January by Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, there are four elements to these plans:

* the building of 47 new prison wings, largely using private investment, creating 21,749 new beds and bringing the prison capacity up to 80,000;
* to amend Article 385 of the Penal Code and bring in home detention for those with less that a year to serve on their sentences (estimates put this at 32% of the current prison population) and ‘community service’ for those sentenced to less than 3 years;
* 2,000 new prison officers;
* and an extension to the powers already granted to Franco Ionta, head of the DAP (Dept of Prison Administration) as special commissioner for prison construction. The later means that he will be able to summarily decide on all contracts involved in the new €600m building scheme, answerable only to Berlusconi himself. Planning will be simplified and projects will follow the pattern of 24 hour working followed in the aftermath of the L’Aquila earthquake.

Needless to say the plans have not been universally popular. During the debate there was a demonstration by public sector unions outside the Italian parliament organised by UILPA Prisons (Italian Workers’ Union – Civil Servants section), OSAPP (Autonomous Union of Penitentiary Police), FP-CGIL (Civil Servants section of the Italian General Confederation of Labour) and SI.DI.PE (Union of Prison Directors and Officers). FP-CGIL, UILPA, RdB (Rank & File Union) and FLP (Federation of Public Workers & Functionaries) have also declared a strike by judicial workers for 5 February in opposition to the plans.

The PSD (Party of Security and Defence Professionals – effectively the Military’s trade union even though they are banned from joining unions) has claimed that no new building scheme is needed as there are already 40 prisons standing empty across Italy. Some, like San Valentino (Pescara) and Arghillà (Reggio Calabria), have never been occupied. Others, such as Morcone (Benevento), are standing empty after extensive refurbishment.

The government’s scheme has also been denounced by prisoner support groups such as Antigone and Hands Off Cain, and the opposition PD (Democratic Party) have introduced a counter-motion declaring that the whole judicial system is broken and building new prisons is not the solution. They point out, amongst other things, that 50% of all prisoners are currently on remand and 30% will be inevitably have the charges against them dismissed. Other have pointed out that the government’s anti-immigration policies and the general racism in Italian society means that 37% of the prison population are foreign prisoners, where as only 6.5% of the total population are foreign nationals.

Inevitably criticism has also focused on the role and powers of Franco Ionta and the potential for corruption given the sweeping powers that have been invested in him, under the direct supervision of il Dude Berlusconi himself. Given the government’s professed anti-mafia/anti-corruption stance, it is to be seen whether the financial corruption alleged to have occurred around the L’Aquila projects will be repeated with the prison building schemes.

http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/2010/02/14/state-of-emergency-declared-in-italian-prison-system/

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By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

MILAN (Reuters) - Dozens of immigrants from North Africa rioted during the night in a multi-ethnic district of Milan, smashing shop windows and overturning cars to protest at the knifing death of an Egyptian, Italian police said on Sunday.

It was the second episode of violence involving immigrants this year, after clashes in southern Italy in January brought about the worst racial violence in the country since World War Two and reignited a long-running debate on immigration.

The rioting began on Saturday evening after a 19-year-old Egyptian man, indentified by police as Hamed Mamoud El Fayed Adou, was killed, apparently by a group of immigrants from South America.

Police said the North Africans, most of them Egyptians, went on a rampage and some clashed with police in the northeastern neighbourhood where some 70 percent of shops are owned by immigrants.

Milan's deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato, called the area a "Wild West between north African and South American gangs."

Police said they had identified more than 30 people involved, most of them Egyptian. Ten Egyptians did not have regular residence permits, and four have been detained.

They were still searching for the South Americans believed to have been responsible for the killing, which they said took place after an argument on a city bus.

The Northern League, an anti-immigrant party in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, called for the immigrants responsible for the violence to be expelled.

CALL FOR EXPULSIONS

One Northern League member called for stiff controls and "expulsions house by house, floor by floor".

Milan, Italy's financial capital, is run by a centre-right regional government and the opposition said that such riots showed that the government's immigration policy was in tatters.

"They (the centre-right) govern the country, the (Lombardy) region and the city," said Pierluigi Bersani, head of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party. "They should accept the fact that their policy on integration and security has failed."

Italy's government last year approved tough legislation making it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to help one. Immigrants without regular papers risk expulsion to their country of origin.

In early January, riots broke out in the Calabrian town of Rosarno when immigrants burned cars and broke store windows to protest against an attack on African farm workers by a gang of local white youths.

At least 53 people, including 18 policemen, were injured in the unrest in the town, located in Italy's southern toe.

Authorities moved hundreds of people, mostly illegal temporary workers from sub-Saharan Africa, to immigrant centres in Italy for their protection.