Suspected ALF Saboteur Sentenced for ELF Action
After years on the run, Justin Solondz pleads guilty to role in Washington ELF arson.
On March 16th, Justin Solondz was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his role in the 2001 ELF arson at the University of 
Washington. The action targeted the UW Urban Horticulture building, which the ELF stated in their communique was the site of genetic engineering work on trees.
Solondz is also charged with a role in the 2001 arson of a Bureau of Land Management wild horse corral in Susanville, California. The action was claimed by the Animal Liberation Front. It was not immediately clear if last month’s guilty plea also resolved that charge.
Solondz was indicted in 2006, and spent two years as a fugitive before being arrested on marijuana possession charges in China in 2008. His attorney stated in court documents that Solondz’s imprisonment in China included being “chained naked in a glass-enclosed cell” by Chinese authorities. For much of his nearly three years in Chinese custody, he was forced to shell peas all day, and would not be fed unless he met a quota.
Solondz was extradited to the US in 2011 and taken into US custody. Shortly after, his codefendant and former girlfriend Brianna Waters agreed to cooperate against him in exchange for a lighter sentence.
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