Montgomery county police information spokesperson, Angela Cruz, said: “Mr. Glover and 11 others were indeed arrested on Friday afternoon in Gaithersburg for trespassing, when they crossed a police line after been verbally warned (three times) not to, during a planned protest.”

Police authorities said the protesters were released immediately after the citations were issued and did not say when they will appear before a judge to pay a fine of $1000 or risk going to jail for up to 90 days.

Officer Melanie Brenner with Montgomery police explained that the citation is of a lesser offence and might take 30 – 60 days for a court date to be schedule.

The protest was about claims of illegal treatment of workers and deprived working condition in a French food firm (SODEXO) base in USA.

SODEXO spokesman, Alfred King, when contacted told AfricaNews: “It's unfortunate that the union misused Mr. Glover's concern for workers as part of its smear campaign against the company.”

Glover is a well known African American actor who in 1982 made his Broadway debut in the play ‘Master Harold…and the boys’ – a play about South African apartheid.

Then in 1987, he contributed his voice to the struggle of black South Africans in their quest to fight against apartheid – when he played the role of Nelson Mandela in the TV drama MANDELA.

Ironically, the year the television series was released, the man whose name Danny Glover used as an alias in the drama series, Nelson Mandela, was in the 25th year of 27 years he served in prison.