Hawaii stops prosecuting elders who protested telescope
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s new attorney general said Tuesday more than two dozen elders won’t be subject to another round of prosecutions for blocking a road three years ago to prevent the construction of a new telescope on a mountain summit many Native Hawaiians consider sacred.
Law enforcement arrested 38 elders, mostly Native Hawaiians, during a 2019 demonstration against the Thirty Meter Telescope planned for Mauna Kea. Of these, 30 had their cases dismissed after a 2021 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling clarified the process for filing criminal complaints and said authorities had been following the incorrect procedure.
