Jeremy Hammond, the man accused of being involved in cyberattacks launched by Anonymous and LulzSec, has issued a lengthy statement from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, where he is currently being held in solitary confinement. Hammond, who has become a symbol of wrongfully accused activists, shared some insight on the case of
Aaron Swartz and the ones of numerous others who have fallen victim to what he calls the “government’s flawed cyber security strategy.”
“I am currently facing multiple computer hacking conspiracy charges due to my alleged involvement with Anonymous, LulzSec, and AntiSec, groups which have targeted and exposed corruption in government institutions and corporations such as Stratfor, The Arizona Department of Public Safety, and HB Gary Federal,” Hammond said.
“My potential sentence is dramatically increased because the Patriot Act expanded the CFAA’s definition of ‘loss.’”
He explains that this allowed Stratfor to claim over $5 million (3.8 million EUR) in damages, which, added to the use of ‘sophisticated means’ and ‘affecting critical infrastructure’ sentence enhancements could land him in prison for the next 30 years.
“Dirty trial tactics and lengthy sentences are not anomalies but are part of a fundamentally flawed and corrupt two-tiered system of ‘justice’ which seeks to reap profits from the mass incarceration of millions, especially people of color and the impoverished,” Hammond commented.
“The use of informants who cooperate in exchange for lighter sentences is not just utilized in the repressive prosecutions of protest movements and manufactured ‘terrorist’ Islamophobic witch-hunts, but also in most drug cases, where defendants face some of the harshest sentences in the world.”
He concludes his statement by saying: “The government will never be forgiven. Aaron Swartz will never be forgotten.”
The statement in full is available on The Sparrow Project
here.
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