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Mothers Face Jail for Protesting At Marine Recruiting Station

Trial for 'Codepink 4' Set for Monday

BERKELEY - Four anti-war mothers - charged with trespassing and allegedly intimidating U.S. Marines at a peaceful demonstration - could do up to a year in jail if convicted in a trial due to begin next week, said CodePINK: Women for Peace, an international peace organization.

A rally and news briefing will be held by the "CodePINK 4," and their lawyers, Monday, June 23, 8:00 a.m. in front of the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington St, Oakland.

The trial is set to begin later that day, Monday, at 9 a.m. The four mothers were jailed March 24 during a protest where they were expressing their deep despair and profound anguish over the deaths of 4,000th U.S. soldiers and more than one million Iraq civilian deaths in Iraq held at the Marine Recruiting Station.

"These women of CodePINK were exercising their constitutional rights to protest this illegal, immoral war. The Berkeley City Council passed resolutions encouraging these women to engage in their First Amendment rights. We have every confidence that a jury is going to find them not guilty," said lawyers Judy Browne, Andy Auer and Ann Winterman, who are defending the CodePINK 4.

"The mothers were the ones arrested while the war criminals and perpetrators remain free to continue the heinous business of foreign troop occupation, torture, rape, murder, mayhem, and the horrific destruction of the sovereign nation of Iraq" said CodePINK mother Toby Blome.

"Who are the real criminals in this country? Who should be held accountable for crimes against our constitution, our democracy, our freedom of speech? Who should be jailed and fined? Not US! We are upholding our Constitution. We are fighting for our rights to hold our government, including our military, accountable to the people of this nation: more than 80 percent of U.S. Americans think our occupation of Iraq is wrong!" added CodePINK mother Pam Bennett.

"Marines are constantly telling us that they're fighting for our freedom of speech, but now we are being prosecuted for exercising the very free speech they claim to protect," charged Medea Benjamin, mother and cofounder of the women's peace group CODEPINK. "How ironic that the Marines, who swear an oath to protect the Constitution, think that our first amendment rights stop at their doorstep."

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com