Post by Die Fledermaus on May 27, 2004 1:24:06 GMT -4
>> Animal Rights Activists Charged with "Terrorizing" Testing Lab
(Newark, NJ-AP, May 26, 2004) — Federal agents in four states on Wednesday arrested seven people charged with organizing a campaign of intimidation and harassment against a British company that tests pharmaceuticals on animals. <<
Those arrested are charged in an indictment against Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA that was unsealed with the arrests.
The nonprofit group and the individuals are charged in a multiyear conspiracy to terrorize Huntingdon Life Sciences, which has labs in New Jersey. The charge carries up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Their actions included "telephone and e-mail blitzes, fax blitzes and computer blockades against HLS in order to divert HLS employees from their regular work," the indictment charged.
The group and three of the suspects are also charged with conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking and three counts of interstate stalking. Each of those charges carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The stalking charges accuse the activists of placing three people, and their families, in fear of death or injury.
SHAC could not immediately be reached for comment. Phone and e-mail messages were not immediately returned.
Huntingdon Life Sciences issued a statement from its U.S. base in East Millstone. "So many people have been victimized by this lawless campaign. These indictments are in keeping with this nation's long tradition of standing up to bullies and demonstrate the United States' continued determination to insure the safety of its people," it said, in part.
The indictment charged that SHAC targeted Huntingdon workers and shareholders, as well as companies that provide services to Huntingdon, by posting personal information about targets on its Web sites and encouraging followers to "operate outside the confines of the legal system."
Protesters have appeared at the homes of at least three Huntingdon employees after such postings, overturning a car at one house and slashing tires and spray-painting slogans at another, the indictment said.
In December, computer hackers disabled the Huntingdon Web site. The SHAC Web site attributed the attack to Russian computer hackers, the indictment said.
Three greens at the Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, N.Y., were damaged on the eve of a Senior PGA golf tournament in July 2002 after the SHAC Web site announced that a director with Huntingdon's insurance broker would be attending, the indictment said.
The Web site later posted a message in which the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the vandalism. Less than two months later, the director's home was spray-painted after a demonstration.
Other attacks described in the indictment included a barrage of more than 2 million e-mails sent in a few hours on July 11, 2001, to a Jersey City brokerage that handled Huntingdon stock, damaging its operations.
The brokerage, which was not named, got a letter Sept. 10, 2002, from one of the suspects, asserting that if the brokerage stopped handling Huntingdon "this should bring a prompt end to the phone calls and faxes and e-mails your company is receiving."
The arrests came just over a year after the members of the FBI's domestic terrorism squad raided SHAC's headquarters in Franklin Township as well as a house near the University of Washington in Seattle, seizing computers and printed materials.
Among those arrested Wednesday in Seattle was a resident of that house, Joshua Harper, a self-proclaimed anarchist and longtime animal-rights activists.
Arrested in California were New Jersey residents Kevin Kjonas, identified as president of SHAC; Lauran Gazzola, SHAC campaign coordinator; and Jacob Conroy.
Agents in New Jersey arrested residents Darius Fullmer and John McGee, while New York resident Andrew Stepanian was arrested on Long Island, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark said. <<
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(Newark, NJ-AP, May 26, 2004) — Federal agents in four states on Wednesday arrested seven people charged with organizing a campaign of intimidation and harassment against a British company that tests pharmaceuticals on animals. <<
Those arrested are charged in an indictment against Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA that was unsealed with the arrests.
The nonprofit group and the individuals are charged in a multiyear conspiracy to terrorize Huntingdon Life Sciences, which has labs in New Jersey. The charge carries up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Their actions included "telephone and e-mail blitzes, fax blitzes and computer blockades against HLS in order to divert HLS employees from their regular work," the indictment charged.
The group and three of the suspects are also charged with conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking and three counts of interstate stalking. Each of those charges carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The stalking charges accuse the activists of placing three people, and their families, in fear of death or injury.
SHAC could not immediately be reached for comment. Phone and e-mail messages were not immediately returned.
Huntingdon Life Sciences issued a statement from its U.S. base in East Millstone. "So many people have been victimized by this lawless campaign. These indictments are in keeping with this nation's long tradition of standing up to bullies and demonstrate the United States' continued determination to insure the safety of its people," it said, in part.
The indictment charged that SHAC targeted Huntingdon workers and shareholders, as well as companies that provide services to Huntingdon, by posting personal information about targets on its Web sites and encouraging followers to "operate outside the confines of the legal system."
Protesters have appeared at the homes of at least three Huntingdon employees after such postings, overturning a car at one house and slashing tires and spray-painting slogans at another, the indictment said.
In December, computer hackers disabled the Huntingdon Web site. The SHAC Web site attributed the attack to Russian computer hackers, the indictment said.
Three greens at the Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, N.Y., were damaged on the eve of a Senior PGA golf tournament in July 2002 after the SHAC Web site announced that a director with Huntingdon's insurance broker would be attending, the indictment said.
The Web site later posted a message in which the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the vandalism. Less than two months later, the director's home was spray-painted after a demonstration.
Other attacks described in the indictment included a barrage of more than 2 million e-mails sent in a few hours on July 11, 2001, to a Jersey City brokerage that handled Huntingdon stock, damaging its operations.
The brokerage, which was not named, got a letter Sept. 10, 2002, from one of the suspects, asserting that if the brokerage stopped handling Huntingdon "this should bring a prompt end to the phone calls and faxes and e-mails your company is receiving."
The arrests came just over a year after the members of the FBI's domestic terrorism squad raided SHAC's headquarters in Franklin Township as well as a house near the University of Washington in Seattle, seizing computers and printed materials.
Among those arrested Wednesday in Seattle was a resident of that house, Joshua Harper, a self-proclaimed anarchist and longtime animal-rights activists.
Arrested in California were New Jersey residents Kevin Kjonas, identified as president of SHAC; Lauran Gazzola, SHAC campaign coordinator; and Jacob Conroy.
Agents in New Jersey arrested residents Darius Fullmer and John McGee, while New York resident Andrew Stepanian was arrested on Long Island, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark said. <<
LINK
