CHICAGO: Three NATO summit protesters face four terrorism-related counts after being accused of planning to attack President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago with Molotov cocktails, according to a grand jury indictment obtained by The Associated Press from defense attorneys.
Authorities arrested Brian Church, Jared Chase and Brent Vincent Betterly days before the summit in Chicago under Illinois’ never-before-used anti-terrorism statutes. They have been in jail since May.
The indictment against the 20-year-old Church, the 24-year-old Chase and the 24-year-old Betterly includes conspiracy to commit terrorism and material support for terrorism — two charges under which they were arrested. They each could spend decades in prison if convicted.
Defense attorneys have said all three men intend to enter not guilty pleas at their July 2 arraignment.
State’s attorneys had said they would only disclose the indictment at the arraignment. But defense attorneys obtained the indictment this week from the Cook County Circuit Court clerk’s office, said Sarah Gelsomino, one of Church’s attorneys.
“This is highly unusual behavior that, at every stage, prosecutors have refused to talk to us,” she said yesterday. “It is symbolic that we couldn’t even get the indictment directly from prosecutors themselves.”
Messages left for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office seeking comment were not immediately returned.
The defense says the state anti-terrorism statute, adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is too all-encompassing and ill-defined. Federal prosecutors handle the vast majority of terrorism cases in the US
A copy of the indictment provided by Gelsomino to the AP is dated June 13 and signed by Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and the grand jury foreman.
It provides no details about the evidence.
Counts in the indictment that make no reference to terrorism include attempted arson, solicitation to commit arson, conspiracy to commit arson and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.
3 NATO summit protesters slapped with terror charges
