Elderly nuns freed after six months in US jail for trespass

Three elderly nuns were freed from prison with four other women yesterday, after serving six-month sentences for trespassing at a Georgia school that trains Latin American soldiers. Sisters Dorothy Hennessey, 89, Gwen Hennessey, 68, and Elizabeth Anne McKenzie, 72, were part of a group convicted last summer of trespassing during a protest at what was once known as the School of the Americas at Fort Benning. At a news conference at the Pekin Federal Prison Camp, Sr McKenzie and others pledged to continue protesting at the school, which is now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. She accused it of training soldiers who have been linked to murder, torture and other human rights abuses. "It's just a matter of, 'Here's a job to be done, with a risk'," Sr Dorothy told reporters. Most of the women served their sentences at the Pekin prison camp. Sr Dorothy was released from a halfway house in Iowa, where she served her sentence because of health concerns. A total of 26 people were convicted of trespassing during a further protest last November in which 3,400 people crossed onto the Army base without permission. Nineteen people remain in various federal prisons; two more women are scheduled to be released on Tuesday and another will get out next month. The army says the goal of the school is to teach democratic principles to future Latin American leaders.