Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has blasted a New York court for extending human rights lawyer Steven Donziger’s house arrest. Donziger had won a landmark lawsuit against oil firm Chevron, but is accused of fraud and bribery.
Waters has long supported lawyer Steven Donziger in his efforts to prosecute oil giant Chevron for alleged pollution of indigenous land in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. Chevron was slapped with a $9.5 billion penalty by an Ecuadorian judge in 2011, but has since accused Donziger of using bribery, fraud and extortion to sway the Ecuadorian judgment.
Speaking on Tuesday after a Manhattan court extended Donziger’s house arrest, the Pink Floyd frontman accused Judge Loretta Preska of being “in the pocket of Chevron.” Judge Preska deemed Donziger a flight risk and extended his house arrest, even though his passport had already been confiscated by the government.
“He has a wife and child. He’s lived in Manhattan for 25 years. Where is he going to fly to?” Waters asked. “What a dark, dark day for American jurisprudence.”
A college classmate of Barack Obama, Steven Donziger’s career has taken some twists on its way first to international stardom, and then to disbarment and house arrest.
To read the full article on RT, click here.
