[Shadow_Group] New prisoner and FBSN/ELP statement

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Urgent ELP! Bulletin (26th November 2004)

Dear friends

ELP (Earth Liberation Prisioners) bring this news for you today:

    1) Former British animal rights prisoner, Sarah Gisborne, has been
remanded.
    2) Joint statement by FBSN & ELP regarding William "Billy" Cottrell.

1) Yesterday former British animal rights prisoner,Sarah Gisborne was
remanded into custody accused of "conspiracy to commit criminal damage".  At
this stage it is unclear what, if any, criminal damage was caused and who
else was involved with this conspiracy.  However Sarah is a well known
activist and therefore please send urgent letters of support to:

    Sarah Gisborne
    LT5393
    HMP Edmunds Hill
    Stradishall
    Newmarket
    Suffolk
    CB8 9YN
    England

2) As reported on the 19th of November 2004, William "Billy" Cottrell, has
testified against two other people and he is now regarded as a police
informant by ELP.  The following is a joint statement written by the former
"Free Billy Support Network" and ELP.

As everyone reading this will be aware, a couple of weeks ago William
"Billy" Cottrell went on trial accused of involvement in a series of ELF
arsons which targeted SUV dealers in the Los Angeles area.

What is less well known is that a week before the trial began, his support
network learned that Cottrell's defence lawyers intended to run a defence
argument which involved blaming two other named individuals for the arsons.
We have confirmed that these additional people were identified without any
cooperation from Cottrell.  It is believed that the information was obtained
through Grand Jury testimony and various forms of electronic surveillance.
It should be mentioned that Cottrell's attorneys filed a motion to exclude
these additional names from court and the media, but Judge Klausner denied
the motion.

Before activists were involved with the legal side of his case, non-movement
attorneys were hired and a direction for court strategy was developed.
Neither Cottrell, his attorneys, or his community received any support from
local activists throughout the Grand Jury and investigation process.  It
should also be noted that Cottrell was never part of any movement or
activist community.  As a result, serious mistakes were made both in
testimony before the Grand Jury and the handling of alleged evidence.

As it turned out, the defence strategy which subsequently developed was to
admit that Cottrell was at the scene of the actions and spray painted ELF
slogans, but did not participate in the planning or execution of the arsons.
His defence would argue that Cottrell had Asperger's syndrome and so did not
have the mental state required to engage in conspiracy; instead, they would
claim he was the innocent dupe of the two other named individuals.  However
the trial Judge rejected a defence plea of Asperger's syndrome and ruled to
exclude any mention of the syndrome from the trial.

As soon as the full defence strategy was known, FBSN (Free Billy Support Network) was shocked to learn
that the defence lawyers intended to name other people as being responsible
for the arsons; FBSN had received assurances throughout Cottrell's
imprisonment that this would not be the case.  The FBSN strongly advised
Cottrell, his family and his lawyers against this defence strategy.  FBSN
also informed ELP about what was happening and ELP likewise raised concerns,
with Cottrell et al, about the implications of such a strategy.

It was decided, at that time, by FBSN & ELP, not to publicise Cottrell's
defence strategy in order to allow Cottrell and his defence team time to
alter their course.  However despite the advice of both FBSN and ELP, this
was not the case.

In court, Cottrell's lawyers alleged that Tyler Johnson and Michie Oe were
responsible for the arsons Cottrell was charged with.  Due to various
factors, including his diagnosis with Asperger's and imprisonment at MDC,
FBSN believe that this decision was made largely without the input of
Cottrell himself.

However, on Wednesday the 17th of November 2004, William "Billy" Cottrell
was called to testify.  Cottrell's testimony was witnessed by members of his
support network.  In his testimony Cottrell stuck to his lawyers defence
argument and blamed Tyler & Michie for the arsons.  To make matters worse he
also extensively detailed their conversations and actions, providing
information that could not be obtained by authorities in any other manner.
Cottrell even confirmed their images when shown pictures of Tyler & Michie.

In the interests of protecting all individuals currently under investigation
for the ELF actions of August 2nd, 2003, FBSN & ELP cannot condone any court
strategy which implicates or exposes others.  This is particularly important
considering the brutality and wrongful prosecutions which characterise
previous investigations by the FBI and associated agencies.

Because of Cottrell's actions in naming and implicating two other people for
the arsons, Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network has been forced to
withdraw all their support for Cottrell and instead have named him as a
police informant.  Likewise FBSN cannot approve of Cottrell's actions and as
such, the Free Billy Support Network has been dissolved.

As for Cottrell himself, despite his testimony, on the 19th of November 2004
he was found guilty on seven counts of arson and one count of conspiracy to
commit arson.  The Jury did, however, clear him of the most serious charge,
that of using a destructive device during a violent crime. Sentencing is not
expected until March 5th, 2005.

A full Court Report about Cottrell's trial will appear in the next issue of
Spirit of Freedom (due out in January 2005).  In the meantime both ELP and
FBSN would like to apologize to all those people who have supported Cottrell
due to our efforts.  Throughout his imprisonment, Cottrell received amazing
support from liberationists across the globe.  We sincerely apologize to
everyone who contributed; we had no idea, until the very end, that Cottrell
intended to testify against others and we did everything we could to
dissuade him from his testimony.

Despite the fact that Cottrell has testified, both ELP and the former FBSN
would like to remind everyone that although Cottrell has turned traitor
there are many other good prisoners who need our support and we hope this
will not put people off supporting them.

For a full up-to-date list of eco-prisoners please e-mail
ELP4321 at Hotmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Prison is a weapon used by the State to crush individuals who step out of
line" (Michael Collins - former Mayday 2000 prisoner)

Support All Animal & Earth Liberation Prisoners

Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
BM Box 2407, London, WC1N 3XX, England
E-Mail < ELP4321 at hotmail.com >
< www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk >

Earth Liberation Prisoners Poland
c/o E-Mail < ELP4321 at Hotmail.com >

Italian Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
E-Mail < italianelp at yahoo.com >
< www.italianelp.net > (Under Construction)

North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
c/o E-Mail < ELP4321 at Hotmail.com >
< www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk >

Turkey Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
E-Mail < elp_tr at hotmail.com >
< www.geocities.com/yesilanarsi/elp.htm >







++++++++++++++++++++++++++STOP THE WALL++++++++++++++++++++++++++

www.stopthewall.org www.nad-plo.org www.hrw.org www.pal-arc.org www.endtheoccupation.org www.sustaincampaign.org






		
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