10 Muslim students found guilty of disrupting Israeli ambassador’s speech

Ten University of California students have been found guilty of conspiring to disrupt a February 2010 speech given by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The students yelled protest phrases at Oren as he gave his speech. The Orange County district attorney's office argued that their disruption counted as planned censorship, which also infringed on the rights of those who came to hear Oren speak. A hundred professors at the University of California at Irvine signed a letter asking the attorneys to drop their charges, arguing that it set "a dangerous precedent for the use of the criminal law against non-violent protests on campus." The school disciplined the Muslim Student Union by suspending the group for an academic quarter.

The students, who were each convicted on two misdemeanor charges, said they were protesting what they called Israel's crimes against humanity.