BOSTON -- Seventeen people were sentenced by a federal magistrate Tuesday to 30 day jail terms and $50 fines each in connection with an anti-draft registration protest at downtown federal offices last month.
Magistrate Robert Degiacomo stayed execution of the sentences for 10 days to allow for appeals.
A spokesman for the Boston Alliance Against Registration and the Draft said all 17 defendants would appeal.
'We think it's a real clear example of repression,' said Richard Schreuer of Boston, a spokesman for BARD and one of 23 protesters arrested Jan. 5 for staging a sit-in in the John W. McCormack Post Office building.
The demonstration coincided with the second wave of the federal government's draft registration drive, which had resumed last summer.
The 17 had been found guilty by Degiacomo in trials earlier this month of interfering with conduct of official business in government building. Charges against six of the defendants were dropped.
