- Author, Bethan Bell
- Role, BBC News
More than 1,200 artists, athletes and academics have condemned the “injustice” of the sentences handed down to five Just Stop Oil activists for nonviolent protests.
In a letter to the attorney general, they requested an urgent meeting to discuss “the imprisonment of truth-tellers and their silencing in court.”
Roger Hallam, 58, was jailed for five years, and four others for four years, after being convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.
This was a protest that disrupted the M25 in London for over four days in November 2022.
Image source, Essex Police
The four people sentenced to four years in prison are:
- Cressida Gethin, 22 years old
- Daniel Shaw, 38
- Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35 years old
- Louise Lancaster, 58
“Service required”
The prison sentences are believed to be the longest handed down in the UK for peaceful protests and exceed those handed down to two other Just Stop Oil protesters for scaling the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at the Dartford Crossing in October 2022.
The letter was signed by prominent figures including former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, musicians Chris Martin and Annie Lennox and author Philip Pullman.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk called the sentences “deeply disturbing.”
The signatories argue that the nonviolent protesters were “performing a necessary service” by “alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face.”
At the trial at Southwark Crown Court, prosecutors claimed the protesters caused more than 50,000 hours of traffic delays, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 “compromised” for more than 120 hours.
The court was also told that the protests had resulted in an economic cost of at least £765,000 – while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million.
‘Madness’
The open letter describes the prison sentences handed down to the activists, dubbed the “Whole Truth Five”, as “one of the greatest injustices committed in a British court in modern history”.
“With prisons on the brink of collapse and the new government taking urgent action to address the problem, how can these sentences be considered anything other than madness?”
The issue of disruptive climate change actions, such as closing the M25, and the legal consequences for those involved, divides opinion.
A snapshot poll conducted by the Social Change Lab, an organization that describes itself as conducting and disseminating research on social movements, found that 61 percent of respondents believed the sentences handed down by the Whole Truth Five were too harsh. Twenty-seven percent of respondents believed the sentences were fair, and 12 percent believed they were too lenient, the survey found.
