US eco-activista imprisoned for two years

Activist Tim DeChristopher marks a hero for environmental colleagues and left-wing activists. Photography: Douglas C. Pizac/AP

An activist who became a hero to activists to stop an auction of the Bush administration for the industry of oil and gas with $1. 8 m (￡ 1. 1 m) in false bids was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday.

Tim DeChristopher was immediately ordered custody and a fine of $10,000. It has been facing a potential sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of $750,000.

Environmental activists and leftists, actress Daryl Hannah to Naomi Klein, author and filmmaker Michael Moore reported immediately as excessive sentence.

At a vigil outside the Salt Lake City Hall, where he carried out the ruling, supporters of the movement of peaceful civil disobedience uprising of the DeChristopher shouted: "Justice is not here."

As a bidder not 70, DeChristopher interrupted what was seen as a final gift to the oil and gas industry by the Bush administration by bidding $1. 8 m (￡ 1. 1 m) did not have the right to drill in remote areas of the State of Utah. He was found guilty of defrauding the Government in March.

In a telephone conversation with The Guardian, a day before the ruling, said he hoped the penalty of imprisonment: "I think that I will serve some time in prison." "That's what I believe to be the next chapter in my life."

DeChristopher lawyers had argued that his actions in December 2008 were single-use, and that the judge must show clemency. They argued that dechristopher had no intent to cause damage.

However, Judge Dee Benson said beliefs the DeChristopher policies does not excuse his actions.

DeChristopher said he had no plan clear when fulfilled at the auction in Salt Lake City, in December 2008.

"" The time I went with a type of direct action of thinking mode of thinking that if I can cause enough delay, stop this action and keep oil in the ground, then that could be worth the effort, he said.

He had come directly from write one of their finals, shaving, and in an old down jacket. "Certainly does not look like someone who was there," said. "Not to be an Executive of oil or anything else".

The federal Bureau of Land Management officials asked if he wanted to bid. DeChristopher said yes, still thinking at that time that he just wanted to shout something or cause a disruption.

But when the auction ended, DeChristopher had driven prices in some plots and winning bids by 14 pieces of land: some of which close to national parks. I knew that he had no money to pay for it.

The administration of Obama later cancelled the majority of sales, due to doubts about the Bush leasing plan.

DeChristopher defense was complicated from the beginning when the judge refused to hear the arguments that had been forced to act, to prevent a greater evil. In this case, the climate change.

But while the argument do not move to the Court, won DeChristopher track on the campus and a greater generation of activists. He also founded a group of civil disobedience, peaceful insurrection.

"Tim is a hero to me," wrote Peter Yarrow, American folk singer and member of Peter, Paul and Mary, in an article in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that DeChristopher compared to the leaders of the civil rights movement.

"American history, acts of civil disobedience have led to change." Thinking on the underground railroad helped slaves to freedom, or on the courageous actions of people like Rosa Parks, who refused to stay at the bottom of the bus simply because of her skin color. "Without this kind of challenge unjust laws our country would probably still denied fundamental freedoms to people of color."

View the original article here