Military Court Finds Hulda Settlers Guilty of Illegal Possession of Arms

Five colonists from the Hulda settlement were found guilty yesterday of illegal possession of arms. The president of the military court which has been hearing the case, Major Russel Lawrence, when delivering the verdict, appealed to Jacob Haas and Jacob Galata, the two Hulda settlers who had pleaded guilty at the trial’s opening, to reveal the source of the arms, indicating that the sentences of all seven would be milder if they do so.

Haas and Galata were given a week to decide whether or not they will “assist the authorities to discover the source of the captured arms.” The court will issue its sentence at the end of the week. “My appeal to those who pleaded guilty should not be misunderstood as a promise to acquit them,” the president of the court said. “Nor is it a threat. It simply means that their sentences may be considered in another light, should they decide to reveal from where the illegal arms came.”