Protesters Link Registration To U.S. Activity in S. America

Linking their punishment to "U.S. militarism in El Salvador," 11 of the 17 people sentenced to jail terms this week for blocking a draft registration area in Boston yesterday told reporters the severity of the sentences "indicates that the Reagan administration will tolerate no dissent in its move toward war."

The activists, who will appeal their 30-day jail terms, reiterated testimony given during their trial by emphasizing "the connections between registration, the draft, the remilitarization of the United States, and the impending war in El Salvador."

Although defense attorney Robert L. Hernandez said "no one here is impugning the integrity of the court," he added that he had based his defense on an indication from Federal Magistrate Robert L. DeGiacomo "that there would be no jailing in this case."

Several of the defendants, who spoke at a Catholic community center on Park St., however, said DeGiacomo's decision reflected a response to "pressure from Washington."

The defendants, who were also fined $50 each, will take their appeal to Federal District Court, "and push it as far as necessary to get the decision overturned," Hemandez said. But he added that a reduction of sentence is unlikely.

None of the defendants is a Harvard student.

The activists expressed surprise and anger, as they did after the sentencing, that DeGiacomo had given the maximum penalty after the prosecution recommended ten-day jail terms.

Hemandez said DeGiacomo's decision proved that the protestors were punished "for expressing themselves politically, and in some cases religiously," rather than for violating federal building codes. Nine people convicted on a similar charge last July, when registration was renewed, received six-month probation terms.

"Their actions actually had no real impediment on the government on that day at that time," the lawyer added.

Twenty-three protestors participated in the January 5 sit-in on the second floor of the McCormack Federal Building in Boston, which resulted in several violent confrontations with federal police. Charges against six of the activists were dropped.

Jonathan Rosenthal, a 20-year-old protestor not directly involved in the Boston case, yesterday thanked "people of non-draft age for showing their support."

Most of the defendants are older than registration age, and two are grand-parents.

In a related case, three anti-registration activists, convicted on charges stemming from a January 10 protest and confrontation with police in Harvard Square, were granted a six-month continuation of their trial.

The decision will allow charges to be dropped after the six-month period, but the three must still pay court costs totaling $450.