Friday, May 13, 2005

No Jail Time for Sailor's Refusal to Board Ship

After hours of charged testimony, the brevity and dispassion of a judge's sentence for Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes left those in the courtroom slightly shocked yesterday.
Reduction to the lowest rank. Two months' restriction to the 32nd Street Naval Station. Three months of hard labor, but no jail time. Court adjourned.
"I'm so confused," said Victor Paredes, who flew in from New Jersey to be with his son during the court-martial. "I don't know what it means."
It means, in part, that Paredes won't be jailed for refusing to board the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard when it left San Diego for the Persian Gulf in December with 3,000 sailors and Marines. Paredes has maintained that the war in Iraq is unethical.

No comments: