<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">obrigada miguel pelos updates neste caso.<div>ainda bem que acabou o pesadelo do steven kurtz.</div><div>é o espelho dum país que tem vindo a ser governado de forma tão estranha...</div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br></span></font><div apple-content-edited="true"> <div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">susana mendes silva</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><a href="http://www.susanamendessilva.com">www.susanamendessilva.com</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><a href="mailto:arslonga@netcabo.pt">arslonga@netcabo.pt</a></span></font></div><div><br></div></div><br> </div><br><div><div>On 11 Jun 2008, at 16:00, miguel leal wrote:</div><br><div>Para rematar as mensagens anteriores sobre este assunto...<br><br>________________________<br>ARTIST CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES IN PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE<br><br>Department of Justice Fails to Appeal Dismissal<br>Kurtz Speaks about Four-Year Ordeal<br><br>Buffalo, NY—Dr. Steven Kurtz, a Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY <br>at Buffalo and cofounder of the award-winning art and theater group <br>Critical Art Ensemble, has been cleared of all charges of mail and <br>wire fraud. On April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara dismissed <br>the government’s entire indictment against Dr. Kurtz as “insufficient <br>on its face.” This means that even if the actions alleged in the <br>indictment (which the judge must accept as “fact”) were true, they <br>would not constitute a crime. The US Department of Justice had thirty <br>days from the date of the ruling to appeal. No action has been taken <br>in this time period, thus stopping any appeal of the dismissal. <br>According to Margaret McFarland, a spokeswoman for US Attorney <br>Terrance P. Flynn, the DoJ will not appeal Arcara’s ruling and will <br>not seek any new charges against Kurtz.<br><br>For over a decade, cultural institutions worldwide have hosted Kurtz <br>and Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects, which use <br>common science materials to examine issues surrounding the new <br>biotechnologies. In 2004 the Department of Justice alleged that Dr. <br>Kurtz had schemed with colleague Dr. Robert Ferrell of the University <br>of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to illegally acquire <br>two harmless bacteria cultures for use in one of those projects. The <br>Justice Department further alleged that the transfer of the material <br>from Ferrell to Kurtz broke a material transfer agreement, thus <br>constituting mail fraud.<br><br>Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the maximum sentence for these charges was <br>increased from five years to twenty years in prison.<br><br>Dr. Kurtz has been fighting the charges ever since. In October 2007, <br>Dr. Ferrell pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor charge after recurring <br>bouts of cancer and three strokes suffered since his indictment <br>prevented him from continuing the struggle.<br><br>KURTZ SUMS UP END OF FOUR-YEAR NIGHTMARE<br><br>Finally vindicated after four years of struggle, Kurtz, asked for a <br>statement, responded stoically: “I don’t have a statement, but I do <br>have questions. As an innocent man, where do I go to get back the <br>four years the Department of Justice stole from me? As a taxpayer, <br>where do I go to get back the millions of dollars the FBI and Justice <br>Department wasted persecuting me? And as a citizen, what must I do to <br>have a Justice Department free of partisan corruption so profound it <br>has turned on those it is sworn to protect?”<br><br>Said Kurtz’s attorney, Paul Cambria, “I am glad an innocent man has <br>been vindicated. Steve Kurtz stared in the face of the federal <br>government and a twenty-year prison term and never flinched, because <br>he believes in his work and his actions were those of a completely <br>innocent man. Clients like him are a blessing, and although I have <br>had many important victories, this one stands at the top of the list.”<br><br>As coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, a group organized to support <br>Kurtz from the beginning of the case, Lucia Sommer sees the end of <br>the prosecution as bittersweet, and like Kurtz, is thoughtful about <br>the broader significance of the case: “This ruling is the best <br>possible ending to a horrible ordeal—but we are mindful of numerous <br>cases still pending, and the grave injustices perpetrated by the Bush <br>administration following 9/11. This case was part of a larger <br>picture, in which law enforcement was given expanded powers. In this <br>instance, the Bush administration was unsuccessful in its attempt to <br>erode Americans’ constitutional rights.”<br><br>Referring to the international outcry the case provoked, involving <br>fundraisers and protests held on four continents, Sommer said, “The <br>government has unlimited resources to bring and prosecute these kinds <br>of charges, but the accused often don’t have any resources to defend <br>themselves. This victory could never have happened without the <br>activism of thousands of people. Supporters protested, vocally <br>opposed the prosecution, and refused to let it go on in silence. And <br>without their efforts at fundraising, Kurtz and Ferrell would not <br>have been able to defend themselves from these false accusations.”<br><br>Sommer added that the next step for the defense will be to get back <br>all of the materials taken by the FBI during its 2004 raid on the <br>Kurtz home, including several completed art projects, as well as Dr. <br>Kurtz’s lab equipment, computers, books, manuscripts, notes, research <br>materials, and personal belongings. The four confiscated art projects <br>are the subject of an exhibition entitled SEIZED on view at Hallwalls <br>Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, through July 18:<br><a href="http://www.hallwalls.org/visual_shows/2008/show_seized.html">http://www.hallwalls.org/visual_shows/2008/show_seized.html</a>.<br><br><br>BACKGROUND TO THE CASE<br><br>The case originated in May 2004, when Kurtz’s wife Hope died of heart <br>failure as the couple was preparing a project about genetically <br>modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary <br>Art. Police who responded to Steve Kurtz’s 911 call deemed the <br>Kurtzes’ art materials suspicious and alerted the FBI. Kurtz <br>explained that the materials (legally and easily obtained basic life <br>science equipment and two harmless bacteria samples) had already been <br>displayed at museums throughout Europe and North America with <br>absolutely no risk to the public. However, the following day, Kurtz <br>was illegally detained for 22 hours on suspicion of bioterrorism, as <br>dozens of agents from the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland <br>Security, Department of Defense, ATF, and numerous other law <br>enforcement agencies raided his home, seizing his personal and <br>professional belongings. After a federal grand jury refused to charge <br>Kurtz with bioterrorism, Kurtz and Ferrell were indicted on two <br>counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud concerning the <br>acquisition of $256 of harmless bacteria for one of Critical Art <br>Ensemble’s educational art projects. (Critical Art Ensemble is the <br>recipient of numerous awards for its projects, including the <br>prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of <br>Artistic Expression Grant, in recognition of twenty years of <br>distinguished work: <a href="http://www.creative-capital.org/index2.html.)">http://www.creative-capital.org/index2.html.)</a><br><br>The Department of Justice brought the charges in spite of the fact <br>that the alleged “victims of fraud”—American Type Culture Collection <br>and the University of Pittsburgh—never filed any charges or <br>complained of any wrongdoing, and the fact that in bringing the <br>charges the Department of Justice was acting completely outside its <br>own Prosecution Policy Relating to Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud (http:// <br><a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/43mcrm.htm)">www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/43mcrm.htm)</a>.<br><br><br>For more information and extensive documentation, including the <br>Judge’s dismissal, please visit:<br><a href="http://caedefensefund.org">http://caedefensefund.org</a><br><br>***<br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>ARENA mailing list<br>ARENA@lists.virose.pt<br>http://lists.virose.pt/mailman/listinfo/arena_lists.virose.pt<br></div></div><br></div></body></html>