ANTI-REAPER DRONE RESISTERS, ARRESTED AT HANCOCK AIR BASE, ON TRIAL IN DEWITT, NY APRIL 18

At 5 pm, Thursday, April 18, 2013, six anti-drone activists from across New York State will stand trial in the DeWitt Town Court. Charged with Trespass for blocking the entrance of Hancock Air Base on October 5, 2012, the activists will go pro se,  i.e. defend themselves, in this bench trial presided over by Judge Robert Jokl.

   Along with four others (who are pleading guilty), the six sought on October 5 to deliver a citizens’ war crimes indictment [http://www.upstatedroneaction.org/flyers/WAR_CRIMES_INDICTMENT.pdf] to Hancock, the regional Reaper drone hub.

   From Hancock the Reaper, a weaponized hunter/killer robot, is piloted over Afghanistan, killing and terrorizing non-combatants. The defendants have argued in previous trials that such terrorism violates international law and that their actions are in accord with the Nuremburg principles requiring citizens to expose their nation’s war crimes.

   The October 5 action was one of about six such events conducted by the grassroots anti-drone group, Upstate Drone Action, over the last couple years. Besides this trial, two more such trials are in the offing at the DeWitt Town Court.

   At a March 20 pre-trial hearing Judge Jokl told the defendants that those found guilty on April 18 would begin jail sentences that evening. Having found Upstate Drone Action defendants guilty of Trespass previously, the Judge may well follow through on his threat.

   Those standing trial:

~ Jim Clune of Binghamton

~ Brian Hynes of the Bronx

~ Ed Kinane of Syracuse

~ Julienne Oldfield of Syracuse

~ Mark Scibilia-Carver of Trumansburg

~ Martha Hennessey of New York City