Forty people, aged 22 to 58, incarcerated for direct actions on climate and Gaza actions amid crackdown on dissent
A record number of people who have taken part in protests will be in prison in the UK this Christmas, raising concern about the ongoing crackdown on dissent.
Forty people, aged from 22 to 58, will be behind bars on Christmas Day for planning or taking part in a variety of protests relating to the climate crisis or the war in Gaza. Several of them are facing years in prison after courts handed down the most severe sentences on record for direct action protests.
Jodie Beck, a policy and campaigns officer at the civil rights group Liberty, said the number of protesters in prison and the severity of their sentences was “a damning reflection of the state of democracy” in the country.
“We should all be able to stand up for what we believe in without fear of lengthy prison sentences. Continuing to prosecute people for exercising their right to protest will only serve to exacerbate the crisis in our criminal justice system alongside stopping people from making their voices heard,” Beck said.
Nineteen people are in prison – 10 of them on remand – after taking part in climate protests with the campaign group Just Stop Oil. They range from five people who received multi-year sentences after being found guilty of conspiring to cause gridlock on the M25, to two young people jailed for more than 18 months for throwing tomato soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting in the National Gallery in London.
…
Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/20/record-number-of-protesters-will-be-in-uk-prisons-this-christmas
