14 DAY TRIAL // The famous Anonymous and LulzSec hacktivist Jeremy Hammond has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release. His supporters hoped that the judge would set him free, considering that he had been in prison since March 2012.
Earlier this year, Hammond pleaded guilty to hacking into the systems of Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor). 10 years was the maximum jail sentence he could get as per the plea agreement he made with prosecutors.
Before the sentencing, Hammond made a statement in which he thanked all his supporters and provided additional details regarding his work as a hacktivist. Sparrow Media provides a full transcript of the 28-year-old’s statement. However, Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered a portion to be redacted.
“The acts of civil disobedience and direct action that I am being sentenced for today are in line with the principles of community and equality that have guided my life,” he said.
“I hacked into dozens of high profile corporations and government institutions, understanding very clearly that what I was doing was against the law, and that my actions could land me back in federal prison. But I felt that I had an obligation to use my skills to expose and confront injustice — and to bring the truth to light.”
Hammond claims he had never heard of Stratfor before Sabu, or Hector Monsegur, had brought it to his attention. It later turned out that Monsegur had been arrested and had been working as an informant for the FBI.
Monsegur provided Hammond with everything he needed to breach targets. In reality, everything they were doing under Monsegur’s lead was actually supervised by the FBI. Even the servers on which they downloaded the Stratfor data were monitored by authorities.
“The U.S. hypes the threat of hackers in order to justify the multi billion dollar cyber security industrial complex, but it is also responsible for the same conduct it aggressively prosecutes and claims to work to prevent,” Hammond noted in his statement.
“The hypocrisy of ‘law and order’ and the injustices caused by capitalism cannot be cured by institutional reform but through civil disobedience and direct action. Yes I broke the law, but I believe that sometimes laws must be broken in order to make room for change.”
The case against the hacktivist has been highly controversial. He has been prosecuted under the outdated Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
Furthermore, in November 2012, Hammond’s supporters asked Judge Preska to step down from the case on the basis that she had a direct conflict of interest. She refused to recuse herself from the trial.
On Friday, WikiLeaks published over 500,000 new Stratfor files. A total of over 5.5 million files have been released.