Stanford demonstrators are accused of crimes for pro-Palestinian occupation

The prosecutors filed on Thursday accusations of crime against 12 pro -Palestinian demonstrators – all except one, one current or former student at the University of Stanford – for having broken into the administration offices in June and caused significant damage.

The accusations were among the most serious against participants in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations of last year on university campuses. More than 3,000 people were arrested during demonstrations and college camps in the spring of 2024, but they were generally faced with charges of offense or saw their charges down.

Jeff Rosen, the District Prosecutor of the County of Santa Clara, who includes the Stanford campus, accused the 12 demonstrators of crime of vandalism and plot of intrusion crime. They risk up to three years and eight months in prison, as well as payment of the return to reimburse the university for damage.

Stanford is one of the dozens of schools that have been studied by the Trump administration to find out how they managed Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and if they have done enough to fight anti-Semitism on the campus. The administration also revoked the visas of several Stanford students and recent graduates, although the reason is not clear. .

Rosen said that the emphasis put by President Trump on Stanford and other universities did not play any role in the decision to charge crimes as crimes.

“What the federal administration does is what they do. What I do is apply California Pinal Code,” said Rosen.