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INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS RELEASED

25 July 2000 SAVANNAH (GA)

Four Greenpeace activists, who had been held in the Chatham County Jail since yesterday, were released this afternoon after the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Atlanta decided that they were not subject to removal from the United States. The activists, Heike Standigl and Christian Jonuschies from Germany, Paul Goyvaerts from Belgium, and James Mitchell from the UK, each were charged with simple misdemeanor trespass along with three other activists from the U.S. The charges stemmed from boarding a docked ship to protest illegal logging.

Although the local authorities appeared prepared to release all seven activists on bond yesterday, the INS placed each of the four foreign nationals under investigation for removal from the U.S. The three activists from the U.S. were released later that same day, while the foreign nationals remained in custody.

The activists originally boarded the ship to protest the lack of U.S.. action on its international commitment to tackle the illegal timber trade. The ship was carrying plywood from a Malaysian logging company, Rimbunan Hijau, which has been repeatedly fined for possession of illegal timber.