B.C. grandmother freed early in anti-logging case

A 73-year-old B.C. woman jailed for one year after helping organize anti-logging protests has been ordered released from jail early.

British Columbia's highest court ruled Thursday that Betty Krawczyk's punishment was too severe.

She was freed after serving only four months behind bars in a case that has received international attention.

"In my judgment the sentence was clearly unfit," said Justice Ian Donald, writing the majority decision.

"The direction that the sentence be served without eligibility for parole or remission is unsustainable."

One of the three panel members, Chief Justice Allan McEachern, issued a partial dissent.

Although he agreed with reducing the sentence, McEachern argued that adding a probation order would have been appropriate.

Krawczyk has helped block roads and occupy trees to stop a company from logging in the Elaho Valley, about 130 kilometres north of Vancouver.

Last year the great-grandmother was convicted of criminal contempt for her part in a demonstration in 1999.

Krawczyk said she was happy to be released early. But she questioned why society was prosecuting environmental activists instead of spending more resources on locking up dangerous criminals.

"Peaceful protest on a logging road is considered more heinous than actual criminal activity such as the Hells Angels dealing drugs because drug dealers don't challenge corporate values," she said in a statement.

"When I stood on that logging road, it affirmed human values over the profit motive and that's considered far more dangerous by corporations and governments."