12 Fort Benning school protesters sentenced to prison

COLUMBUS - Twelve protesters arrested at Fort Benning last fall were sentenced to federal prison terms Monday for trespassing during a demonstration against the post&#39;s training school for Latin American soldiers. <br> <br> U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Mallon Faircloth sentenced one defendant to six months in prison and 11 others to three months. Ten defendants got one year probation and $500 fines, and another will serve six months of home confinement. <br> <br> In all, 85 protesters including a Roman Catholic priest, eight nuns and several veterans were arrested during the Nov. 17 demonstration at the Army post in west central Georgia. <br> <br> Three pleaded guilty last year to trespassing. The judge sentenced two of them to probation and the third to 90 days in jail. Two others, including a man who drove onto the post accidentally, were not prosecuted. <br> <br> Two college students accused of cutting a gate lock pleaded guilty to destruction of government property last week and are awaiting sentencing. <br> <br> Seventeen protesters were to appear before Faircloth on Tuesday, and 38 others are scheduled for trials beginning Feb. 10. <br> <br> A group known as SOA Watch holds annual demonstrations outside Fort Benning to commemorate the Nov. 16, 1989, killings of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador. Some graduates of the Army&#39;s former School of the Americas were linked to that killing. <br> <br> The school moved to Fort Benning from Panama in 1984. It was transferred to the Defense Department in 2000 and renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, with mandatory human rights courses. <br> <br> Protest leaders vow to continue the demonstrations until the new school closes. Military officials strongly deny that the School of the Americas or its successor are responsible for abuses.