Ft. Benning protester sentenced to 6 months - WLTZ 38 | Columbus Georgia Regional News & Community

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A protester arrested last fall during a mass demonstration outside Fort Benning has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Robert Chantal of Americus stood trial Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus. Chantal — known as Nashua — was charged with trespassing onto Fort Benning by crossing a barbed-wire fence outside at the Army post last November.

Chantal was among roughly 3,000 protesters gathered for annual demonstrations to call for the closure of the former School of the Americas. The Army school trains Latin American military officers. Critics say graduates used their U.S. military training to commit human rights abuses in their home countries.

Chantal told the court he became involved in the demonstration after volunteering with the immigrant community in Americus.