The UK appeals court will rule on jail terms for environmental activists. Sixteen British climate activists imprisoned for their high-profile protests will learn Friday if they have won an appeal against their harsh sentences.
In January, lawyer told London’s Court of Appeal that the prison terms for different protests ranged from 15 months to five years and were “the highest of their kind in modern British history”.
The activists “did what they did out of sacrifice” and were operating in the “best interests of the public, the planet, and future generations,” he claimed, pleading for the jail sentences to be lowered.
Prosecutors stated that the penalties were justified because “all of these applicants went so far beyond what was reasonable”.
Their activities also posed an “extreme danger” to the public and themselves, they claimed.
Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr will deliver the verdict at the Court of Appeal in London at 1000 GMT on Friday, in a case that might have far-reaching consequences for future protests.
The meeting is being widely monitored due to concerns that peaceful protests in Britain would be repressed.
Activist groups Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion have staged high-profile protests in recent years to oppose the use of fossil fuels, which scientists blame for global warming and climate change. Tomato soup with orange powder-
Just Stop Oil, which is lobbying the government to stop the use of fossil fuels by 2030, is known for its eye-catching antics at museums, sporting events, and shows but has faced criticism for its methods.
The 16 activists, including some who spilt tomato soup on Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” artwork at London’s National Gallery, are attempting to lessen or eliminate long prison sentences.
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, two environmental NGOs, have joined “a critically important legal appeal over the right to protest”.
Other instances are still pending in the courts, including charges against two Just Stop Oil members suspected of flinging orange paint powder over the stone megaliths of Stonehenge and two activists accused of spray-painting naturalist Charles Darwin’s tomb in Westminster Abbey.
Politicians and police have condemned the activists’ pranks, and some members of the public have responded negatively.
In July, five of the 16 activists who filed the appeal were sentenced to four to five years in prison for attempting to block the M25 motorway around London, a critical transport connection for the capital.
They include 58-year-old Roger Hallam, a co-founder of JSO and Extinction Rebellion. His four co-accused were also imprisoned.
“The plain fact is that each of you some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic,” judge Christopher Hehir told them before their sentence.
The country’s previous Conservative government was hostile to disruptive direct action and established legislation toughening penalties for such acts.