Long jail terms for Just Stop Oil protesters

18 July 2024

Four and five year jail terms handed out to five Just Stop Oil activists who planned a protest to block the M25 in November 2022 have been condemned as excessive.  The five, who were hoping to force the UK government to abandon its policy of issuing new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, were accused by the judge of having 'crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic'.

The Guardian reported a statement by issued after the trial by Michel Forst, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders

“Today is a dark day for peaceful environmental protest” in the UK, he said. “This sentence should shock the conscience of any member of the public. It should also put all of us on high alert on the state of civic rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom.

“Rulings like today’s set a very dangerous precedent, not just for environmental protest but any form of peaceful protest that may, at one point or another, not align with the interests of the government of the day.”

Read the Guardian article

George Monbiot condemned the sentences, and the arrest of people protesting outside the court, as 'a blight on British democracy'.