Reports by the Guardian.com said a federal judge ordered Ammon Bundy and other leaders of the armed militia in OR to remain behind bars without bail at a hearing in Portland.
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Three more members of an armed group who took over a federal wildlife refuge in OR are in custody.
Federal analysts predicted that the government’s hands-off response to a 2014 Nevada armed standoff led by Bundy’s father, Cliven, over grazing rights would give impetus to others.
The indictments were filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon Wednesday and unsealed Thursday.
Bundy does not mention the four remaining militants still occupying the facility, whom he had encouraged to leave peacefully in past statements.
Bundy and 10 others were arrested last week in OR, a lot of them during a confrontation with Federal Bureau of Investigation and state police on a snow-covered roadside where a spokesman for the group, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was shot to death.
Ammon Bundy – a Mormon and the main leader of the refuge occupation -has said he was following divine orders when he and his followers seized the refuge January 2.
It doesn’t appear that protestors in OR will be going home anytime soon.
A federal grand jury charged all with felony conspiracy, accused of using intimidation to prevent federal officers from doing their work at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. “This is what you get when government officials ignore the people”, Bundy said in the message, arguing that the occupiers had “exhausted all prudent measures to get government officials to investigate the abuses to the Hammond family”.
Most occupiers cleared out after Bundy’s arrest and the police shooting, but four remained and say they won’t leave unless they receive assurances they won’t be arrested.
“Their approach is time is on their side”, said Carl Jensen, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisory special agent who is director of the Intelligence and Security Studies program at the Citadel military college.
The conspiracy began October 5 when two of the defendants (Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne) traveled to Burns to warn the sheriff that “extreme civil unrest” would occur “if certain demands were not met”, the indictment said.
‘Due to the evolving situation in eastern OR, all service stations are on alert and being advised to take appropriate caution, ‘ Shire said in a statement.
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William Fry is the father of David Fry of Blanchester, Ohio, one of the holdouts at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
