Some of the original sentences did not comply with human rights laws
A critical legal appeal over the right to protest has culminated in an important win at the Court of Appeal today.
A judge has ruled that some of the original sentences handed down to 16 climate activists were “manifestly excessive” and did not comply with human rights laws.
Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace UK, who supported the appeal, said the judgment “goes some way to improving the law for those sounding the alarm about the climate and nature crises through peaceful protest”.
The mass-appeal hearing for the 16 Just Stop Oil activists, which took place over two days last month, has resulted in sentence reductions for six of the activists.
Cressie Gethin, Roger Hallam, Lou Lancaster, Daniel Shaw and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu were convicted for plotting action that caused major disruption to traffic, with protesters climbing onto gantries over the M25 motorway for four successive days in November 2022.
Co-founder of JSO and Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, who was originally sentenced to five years, has had his sentence reduced to 4 years.
Gethin and Whittaker De Abreu will now serve a two and a half year sentence instead of four years.
Lancaster and Shaw’s sentences have been lowered from four to three years.
78-year-old Gaie Delap, who was also involved in the M25 protest, had her sentence reduced from 20 months to 18.
The sentences of 10 other protesters involved in the same appeal were not reduced, including those of Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, who threw soup on the glass protecting Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting.
A University of Bristol study published last December found that Britain leads the world in cracking down on climate activism. British environmental protesters are arrested at nearly three times the global average rate.
Greenpeace has pointed out that before the Conservative government introduced new protest laws during the last Parliament, peaceful protest rarely resulted in jail time.
Areeba Hamid, co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said: “Despite some modest reductions, these sentences are still unprecedented and they still have no place in a democracy that upholds the right to protest.
“This appeal has led to some important clarifications and a recognition that the trial judge was mistaken in denying the protestors the protection of certain legal rights and in discounting the conscientious nature of their motivations.”
However, Hamid warned that the ruling will not halt or reverse “the UK’s slide towards authoritarianism” which began under the Conservatives but she says is “being enthusiastically embraced” by Labour.
She added: “Even the most everyday protests, marches and rallies organised in cooperation with the police, are being demonised and blocked.
“If you care about anything any corporation or anyone in a position of power is doing, or should be doing, you should be incredibly concerned about your freedom to speak out. If you don’t raise your voice now, you may lose it forever.”
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