[CHICAGO] The State dismissed charges against sixteen members of the faith-based Circle of Life Affinity Group on trial Monday, July 7 for criminal trespass to property in Judge Mark Ballard’s Cook County Circuit Courtroom.

Members of the Circle of Life were arrested at the Kluczynski Federal Building on January 27 protesting the first strike war in Iraq, becoming Chicago’s first arrested demonstrators prior to the recent invasion of Iraq.

Melinda Power, the group’s attorney, said, “This dismissal is a victory for all of the tens of thousands of Chicagoans who protested against the war in Iraq.”

The dismissal of all charges against us today is a victory for the tens of thousands of Chicagoans who have opposed the illegal and unjustified war in Iraq.

By dropping the charges, the state admitted that they did not want a jury hearing our case for nonviolent witness at the Federal Building on January 27 against an unjustified war.

The state dismissed our charges, but the U.S. government cannot dismiss the illegality of the war in Iraq. They cannot dismiss the fact that every justification for the war has been found to be false. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. No ties between Iraq and al Queda have been discovered. And no nuclear weapons capabilities existed.