Hawaii stops prosecuting elders who protested telescope

By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s new attorney general says 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 that many Native Hawaiians consider sacred. Law enforcement arrested 38 mostly Native Hawaiian elders 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. The attorney general could have refiled charges but says it’s not in the best interest of Hawaii’s people to do so.