His legal team has one week to challenge that denial and if he loses he will have to report to federal prison for six months to appeal while incarcerated. The saga of Chevron’s perversion of the law and denial of justice for the people of Ecuador reached a new chapter as Donziger was even denied bail pending appeal of the decision.
Preska not only dismissed the recent decision by the UNs Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that Donziger should be not only freed but compensated as his detention is a human rights violation, but in flagrantly poor taste employed the brutal metaphor that Donziger should be hit between the eyes with a proverbial two by four”. Preska herself was hand picked by Kaplan to try the case. The charges were prosecuted by corporate law firm Seward & Kissel (a Chevron law firm) appointed by Kaplan himself. It is certainly a chilling message to all environmentally concerned citizens: “Don’t try to come after us, or we will come after you.”īelow is a statement issued after the judge’s sentencing by the organization Amazon Watch:Īs expected judge Loretta Preska sentenced Steven Donziger to the maximum sentence of six months in federal prison for the petty misdemeanor contempt of court charges filed by pro-Chevron former tobacco-industry lawyer now judge Lewis Kaplan.
It has become a symbol of corporate tyranny and the reaction people have to it. A powerful movement urging Donziger’s freedom has grown up around this case, as many have come to see it as a sign of something much more dangerous than just the unjust prosecution of one man. Today, the Chevron-supported judge, aided by the Chevron-supported prosecution, sentenced Donziger to the maximum time of six months in federal prison. More and more Americans are aware of the dangers of allowing a multi-national corporation to use a US courtroom to prosecute those who resist its policies. Attorney General Merrick Garland has been asked by Congresspeople as well as by members of the public to return the case to the US justice system. Congressmen, Senators and scores of Nobel Laureates have demanded his release. The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has called on the United States to release Donziger, claiming that his confinement is an arbitrary violation of his human rights. During that time, the public outcry on his behalf has grown.
#RITA GLAVIN DONZIGER TRIAL#
Two years of home confinement – unheard of for a grade B misdemeanor – preceded Donziger’s trial and sentencing. Given that Donziger’s computer was filled with confidential information regarding names and whereabouts of Ecuadorian environmental activists, in his case the violation of attorney-client privilege would have had particularly egregious consequences.
When a NY Court decided to pass on prosecuting him for that, Judge Lewis Kaplan used a legal loophole to turn over prosecution of the case to Chevron. Donziger’s alleged crime is a grade B misdemeanor, his having refused a court order to turn over this electronic equipment to Chevron.
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