It was confirmed on Saturday 30 November that the Court of Appeal will conduct an extraordinary mass hearing of 16 Just Stop Oil political prisoners, arising from four separate cases, who received combined prison sentences of over 41 years for peaceful protest. The hearing has been listed for 29 and 30 January 2025 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Just Stop Oil appeal hearings are a landmark case
The four cases, all involving actions by nonviolent civil resistance group Just Stop Oil, include the following:
- The Whole Truth Five – Roger Hallam (5yrs), Cressida Gethin (4yrs), Louise Lancaster (4yrs), Daniel Shaw (4yrs), and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu (4yrs) received record breaking prison sentences for planning nonviolent disruption on the M25, to stop the granting of new oil and gas licences:
- M25 Gantries – George Simonson (2yrs), Theresa Higginson (2yrs), Paul Bell (22 months), Gaie Delap (20 months), and Paul Sousek (20 months) participated in that same action, by climbing onto gantries over the M25.
- Navigator Tunnellers – Larch Maxey (3yrs), Chris Bennett (18 months), Samuel Johnson (18 months), and Joe Howlett (15 months) occupied tunnels dug under the road leading to the Navigator Oil Terminal in Thurrock, Essex.
- Sunflowers – Phoebe Plummer (2yrs) and Anna Holland (20 months) threw soup on the glass protecting Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting:
While the actions in these cases are markedly different from one another, they are united by being nonviolent and taken in an attempt to save lives, as well as by the disproportionate sentences imposed.
Where’s Walney?
These came after disgraced John Woodcock (‘Lord Walney’), an oil and arms industry lobbyist falsely presented to the public as an ‘independent’ Government adviser, called for groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action to be treated as equivalent to serious organised criminals.
Since then an unprecedented sentencing inflation has taken hold, despite Britain’s prisons crisis, with multiple peaceful protestors jailed for longer than if they had committed violent or sexual offences. The practice is at odds with Britain’s history and international practice and has been condemned by the United Nations and other international observers [7].
The appeals against all four sets of jail sentences will be heard by a full session of the Court of Appeal, led by Lady Justice Carr (the Lady Chief Justice).
Points of appeal will include whether a conscientious motivation should be treated as mitigation, and whether throwing soup on glass should be sentenced as an act of violence, if it caused some damage to the frame.
The outcome will be a defining moment for the right to protest in Britain, with far reaching consequences for our basic democratic rights and freedoms.
Just Stop Oil sentences violate basic human rights, says UN
Lex Korte, spokesperson for the Free Political Prisoners campaign, said:
A subset of judges have responded all too eagerly to the call from the disgraced Lord Walney, the arms and oil industry lobbyist, to jail peaceful climate campaigners for longer than if they’d committed serious crimes of sexual violence.
This would be insane at any time, let alone in the midst of climate breakdown and Britain’s prisons crisis. It is corruption designed to shield from accountability the fossil fuel industry, which has systematically suppressed from the public the scientific evidence about the catastrophic impacts of their deadly businesses.
As the UN has made clear, these sentences violate basic principles of human rights, democratic freedoms and international law. What’s at stake in this hearing is not just the freedom of some courageous individuals. It’s the credibility of the British legal system and the lifeblood of democracy itself.
The demands of the Free Political Prisoners campaign are:
- To put a stop to the role of arms and oil industry lobbyists, such as Lord Walney, in drafting laws that criminalise those who expose the violence and lies of those industries.
- To ensure that everyone who has taken reasonable and proportionate measures to prevent mass loss of life has the opportunity to properly present that as a defence to criminal charges
- To end the jailing of people for taking peaceful action to protect life and to uphold international law.
A ‘chilling response to legitimate protest’
James Skeet, spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, noted:
We’ve passed the 1.5 degree threshold that was supposed to keep us safe, as governments continue to serve the oil and gas lobby, whilst locking up young people for trying to preserve their chance of a future. In years to come, people will question the priorities of our judiciary, and will ask ‘who were actually the real criminals’?
Tim Lancaster, political prisoner family member, said:
Prison is a poor solution for most problems but it is a chilling response to legitimate protest. Good people should not be imprisoned for raising the alarm about climate change. Organising and participating in peaceful protest, when Sunak broke the law by selling oil licences, should not result in lengthy prison sentence. I welcome the decision to hear these appeals together and the opportunity it provides to right this wrong and to treat these brave, principled people with kindness and respect.
Featured image supplied
