On the website for accepting donations in bitcoins BitHope.org there was a petition calling for a fundraiser for Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to double life imprisonment of the founder of the trade site Silk Road.
The petition launched on behalf of The Ross Ulbricht Legal Defense group of supporters of Ulbricht, which includes family members, friends and other concerned people. They make every effort to ensure that help Ulbricht to seek a review of the "barbaric" sentence for non-violent articles.
"Our mission is to make Ross a free man and give him the opportunity to contribute to the society", — reads the petition.
In addition to the direct struggle for the emancipation of Ulbrich, the group will focus its efforts on the protection of such fundamental individual rights as the right to a fair trial, and the legend of publicity of the draconian practices of the judicial sentences of the mass of prisoners in the United States and too expensive and inefficient the state's struggle with drugs.
The group also struggles with the arbitrariness of prosecutors and the consequences of the dangerous precedents that began with the Silk Road case.
Today the petition for BitHope.org collected more than 1.2 BTC.
As reported ForkLog in August to support efforts to free her son asked the mother of Ross Ulbricht. With this purpose, Lyn Ulbricht chose a platform Steemit, earning more than $6,000 for the first post.
Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life imprisonment in may last year. The court found him guilty on all seven counts, including traffic in drugs through the Internet, conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, leadership of a criminal community, conspiracy to commit computer hacking and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
However, in the beginning of 2016 Ulbricht's lawyers appealed to the U.S. court of Appeals, arguing that the process was concealed key evidence. The defense intends to seek a retrial and believes that in the end, Ulbricht will be free.