An armed militia group has seized control of a federal government facility in a remote area of the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon.

The group broke into the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Saturday after staging a march in the nearby town of Burns to protest the imminent imprisonment of two local ranchers (73-year-old Dwight Hammond and his 46-year-old son Steve), who were convicted of setting fires on federally-owned lands several years ago. Both father and son have already served brief sentences for the crimes, but a federal judge recently ruled their jail terms were too short and ordered them back to prison to serve at least four extra years, beginning Monday.

The leaders of the militia group include three sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who staged an armed standoff with federal authorities in 2014 over unpaid grazing fees on federally-owned lands.

One of the Bundy brothers, Ammon, told reporters in a phone interview that the group plans to stay at the refuge indefinitely, describing it as “the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds.”

Source: VOA News [xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

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