Image via Just Stop Oil
In what is being called an "obscene perversion of justice" and "one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history", the Whole Truth Five climate protestors in the UK were handed four to five year prison sentences on July 18 for nothing more than attending a Zoom call. These are the longest ever sentences for nonviolent climate protest. The sentences are being met with widespread disbelief and outrage.
As Just Stop Oil that they are supporters of, a UK environmental group relates:
"At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir jailed Roger Hallam (57, from Wales) for five years, whilst Daniel Shaw (38, from Northampton), Lucia Whittaker De Abreu (34, from Derby), Louise Lancaster (58, from Cambridge) and Cressida Gethin (22, from Hereford) were each sentenced to four years.
They were convicted last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance in relation to the M25 motorway disruption in November 2022."
"The defendants were denied the right to explain to a jury why they took the action they did, making a mockery of the right to a fair trial, with the judge saying that the Crown Prosecution’s agreed facts on climate collapse – including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months – were “neither here nor there”. These five brave, defiant people, like all nonviolent protestors, are fulfilling a necessary service by alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face, as scientists in their droves express their fear that many of the Earth’s systems are already at breaking point."
It states further that the "sentences...are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault."
Bill McGuire, Emeritus Professor of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at University College London, said of the sentences:
“The trial and verdict were a farce. They mark a low point in British justice and they were an assault on free speech. The judge’s characterisation of climate breakdown as a matter of opinion and belief is completely nonsensical and demonstrates extraordinary ignorance. Similarly to suggest that the climate emergency is irrelevant in relation to whether the defendants had a reasonable case for action is crass stupidity.”
Just Stop Oil notes, the naturalist and TV broadcaster, Chris Packham, issued a statement on X, referring to the court case as a ‘sham’, adding ‘we should not allow our courts to be corrupted by [the might of the fossil fuel industry].’
Nearly 55,000 people have signed a petition demanding an "immediate end to the imprisonment of brave, nonviolent political prisoners, jailed for telling the truth and acting in resistance to continued extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal."
The Open Letter has also been signed by over 1200 public figures including Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Jeremy Corbyn, Annie Lennox, Tilda Swinton, Bianca Jagger, Nick Hornby and many more.
A protest in support of the five is planned for August 3rd at 12pm in London's Parliament Square.
Comentarios