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In what is considered to be the first major court case of the “hacktivist era,” Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond was sentenced today in a Manhattan court house to the maximum 10 years in prison. According to revolution news, in May 2013 Hammond plead guilty in a plea deal that set the maximum sentence at 10 years in prison.
You can read the entirety of Hammond’s sentencing statement here.
According to reports, Hammond will be imprisoned in the Chicago area, where he was arrested. He will be also be supervised for three years upon release and will reportedly be unable to use any online anonymity tools like Tor during those years.
Jeremy Hammond sentenced to 120 months; 3 yrs supervised release after, no anonymity tools like Tor allowed during that period
— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) November 15, 2013
Hammond, who has a number of prior convictions for activist-related crimes, was arrested in March 2012 for the hacking and leak of over 500,000 internal emails from private intelligence company Stratfor. You can read all of the leaked emails, including proof of invasive surveillance by the private and unregulated company, over at Wikileaks’ “Global Intelligence Files.”
After over a year in prison without being charged, including time in solitary confinement with no chance of bail, Hammond could have seen life in prison for his violations of the dated Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Many questions have been raised about Judge Loretta Preska’s ability to reside over Hammond’s case as her husband was a reportedly a victim of the Stratfor hack, leading many activists and journalists to call for Preska to recuse herself.
Judge Preska should have recused herself from handing down a sentence on Hammond over the Stratford hacking, due to conflict of interest.
— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) November 15, 2013
You can read the official release from Hammond’s arrest written by the Distract Attorney’s Office below: