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Human rights attorney Steven Donziger, who helped win the historic $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron for deliberate pollution of the Ecuadorian Amazon, was sentenced to six months in prison for misdemeanor “contempt of court.” He remains on house arrest today after having already served 45 days in prison and over 950 days of confinement.
The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found in September 2021 that Donziger’s deprivation of liberty is arbitrary because it violates multiple norms relating to the right to a fair trial, including the apparent lack of impartiality of the courts.
Please join this international call led by Amnesty International and over 100 other environmental and human rights organizations for President Biden to immediately release Donziger, drop all charges, and investigate this judicial abuse and travesty of justice. Sign the petition here.
Biden needs to do the right thing!
Since when do corporations get to decide or even influence who gets prison time? Since when do corporations get to decide if they will comply with the decisions of a rightful, prudent judicial proceeding? Since when do corporations -- Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Ag -- get to decide if they will continue with their dire, toxic, addictive, planet-cide pollution despite all CONFIRMED scientific evidence that they must desist for the good of all humankind? Since when do corporations decide who judges the cases, the merits of the cases, the outcomes of the cases? Since when do corporations get to decide if particular legislation in any country is a benefit to their bottom line, and be empowered to take clandestine, illegal, above-the-law, harmful, abusive, lethal actions if they conclude it does not suit their business plans? WE ARE A NATION AND A CIVILIZATION AND AN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF LAWS! IF CORPORATIONS DO NOT LIKE THE LAWS OF A PARTICULAR NATION OR GROUP OF NATIONS, THERE IS NO MANDATE THAT THEY MAINTAIN THEIR BUSINESS THERE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE! IT IS CLEAR THAT THE ENVIRONMENT ECUADOR WOULD BE FAR BETTER OFF WITHOUT THEIR TOXIC FILTH!
I'm ashamed that my countries justice system is so corrupt that a mega corporation can make it an instrument of illegal and unprecedented retaliation. As my RepresentUS shirt says, "With liberty and justice for sale."
Our members of Congress all took an oath of office to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." That includes defending the rights of citizens to "a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury" and ensuring against "cruel and unusual punishments." Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger has been denied these basic Constitutional rights. Our members of Congress need to to fulfill their oath of office, and ensure that his rights are restored, and that he is freed from this mockery of our judicial system.
Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man. - Stewart Udall
As Representative Tlaib stated on October 27, the day Donziger reported to federal prison, “They (Chevron) think they’ve found a path for escaping accountability and escaping justice, but they’ve only just awoken the people.”