Attorney Steven Donziger to serve sentence at home.   Photo: Mary Ferril

New York, December 10 (RHC)-- In New York City, environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger has been sent home under a pandemic-related early release program to serve the rest of his six-month prison sentence from his apartment. 

Donziger was sentenced in October for contempt of court, after a corporate prosecutor tied to the oil and gas industry went after him for successfully taking on Chevron on behalf of Indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon whose land and water were contaminated by the oil giant. 

International rights groups and a number of U.S. lawmakers, including Congressmembers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, have called for his release.  Donziger, who had already spent over two years under house arrest before his prison sentence, vowed to continue fighting for his freedom and to hold Chevron accountable for its crimes.